10 Thanksgiving Activities for Kids, Adults or the Whole Family

The nights grow longer. The leaves start to change colors and fall to the ground. The temperature drops to comfortable warming degree. Fall is almost here and with that brings many holidays drawing nearer and nearer. I can almost smell the turkey and taste the pumpkin pie! Things that make my tummy say yummy! Along with the holidays brings many busy days ahead for most people as there are so many things to prepare for. Of course we can't forget about the children who often want to be our little helpers and need attention that they deserve from being so adorable. Here are 10 Thanksgiving ideas to keep the little busy while you attend to your tasks or just relax or you can of course always join them and take the simple pleasures of being a kid again. I found most of these on the web put together in this article for your convenience...Enjoy!

1. Thanksgiving Bingo. My grandma always brought this over for us to play while mom was busy in the kitchen to keep us busy. You can buy this game or simply make it yourself. It is the regular bingo you are used to only with a twist. Instead of calling N 58 you ask questions relating towards thanksgiving and the board is decorated with the answers instead of numbers. The rules are the same and if you choose to make it yourself you can choose what questions and answers you want to use. You still use the BINGO header and have little chips for markers. Ex. What year was the first thanksgiving held? Those with the answer 1621 on their sheets would mark it with a marker and so on and so on till someone has BINGO. You can always be creative and change things how you like should you decided to make this by yourself.

2. Thanksgiving Color Pages. Something very simply, but yet captivating. You can find many print out pages of thanksgiving related pictures to print our or you can buy coloring books. Simply put out some pages along with crayons, markers, colored pencils, or paint...whatever you wish to use and let the kids color away. If you don't mind the mess add things like glitter, feathers, buttons, pom-poms, and other extras to let the kids spice up their pages. These are easily found at your local craft store or Wal-Mart. It's something simple, cheap, and entertaining.

3. Thanksgiving Hide and Seek. Choose a thanksgiving theme you would like to use such as a turkey, pilgrims, pumpkins, etc. Before thanksgiving make index cards of your theme. Have the kids cut out pictures from magazines, draw/color them...however you want them decorated of the theme you chose to use. To start pick someone to be the leader. The leader has everyone leave the room while they hide the already decorated cards around the room. Once all have been hidden everyone else can return to begin the hunt. The person who finds the most cards is the next leader and the next round begins and so on and so on. If the leader feels like giving hints instead of saying "closer, closer" have them think of things related to thanksgiving like gobbling or whatever creative thing pops up. (Source 1). Or instead of using the card system if you like you could always dress up as Thanksgiving characters and play normal hide and seek that way shouting, "I found the turkey!" or "I found the pumpkin!"...be creative!

4. Tin Can Turkey. Can be used for a table piece, pen holder, candy holder...whatever you chose for it to be used for. You need: hot glue gun, scissors, white craft glue, empty tin can (such as from an empty soup can or vegetable can), felt of different colors (red, brown, orange, white, black, tan), tail pattern http://crafts.kaboose.com/img/craft_images/tincanturkeypatt1.pdf (print out) and other patterns http://crafts.kaboose.com/img/craft_images/tincanturkeypatt2.pdf (print out). Directions: Lay empty, clean, and safe from sharp edges tin can "on its side on the short end of the sheet of brown felt. Roll up to determine how much felt you will need, trim the end so that you have about an inch overlap at the top, bottom and around the perimeter as well. Glue the brown felt to the can, folding over the excess and gluing to the bottom and inside the lip of the can. Look for the seam; this will be the back of your turkey. Using pattern, cut out the tail from a piece of cardstock, you will need this to glue your felt to as the felt is too flimsy to stand on its own. Using the other patterns, cut out a red waddle, white eyes, black pupils, brown head, black eyebrows, goldenrod beak, tan collar, and orange feet. For tail feathers, cut out 2 red, 2 tan, 1 orange, 1 goldenrod and 1 brown. Glue the collar, straight side lines up with the top of the can, to the front of the turkey (remember, seam is in the back). Glue the red waddle just above the bottom of the collar. Glue the head over the top of the waddle, leaving just the bumps of the waddle showing below the head. The head will be above the lip of the can. Glue on the whites of the eyes in the center of the head. Glue on the black pupils to the white. Glue on the goldenrod beak, overlapping the bottom of the eyes slightly. Glue on the eyebrows above the eyes, pointing upward. Glue 2 orange feet to the bottom portion of the can. Lay the card stock tail template on to the table. Glue a red felt tail feather on top of the far right point. Repeat on the left side with the other red tail feather. Glue a tan feather to the next point on the right, overlapping the first red one. Do this on the left as well, using a goldenrod tail feather. Repeat on the right with an orange feather and on the left with a tan feather. Finally, glue the brown feather to the center point, overlapping feathers on both sides. Be sure there is no card stock peeking through; all should be covered with felt feathers. Hot glue the completed tail to the back of the can. Put some hot glue on the sides of the can and squeeze the tail feathers around the side by gripping the can with your hand. "(Source 2). Feel free to substitute cardstock with cardboard or some other sturdy material you have around your house as well as different colors of felt if you feel like being more creative.

5. Watch A Movie. After the big feast the adults are usually tired and want time to digest their food and not have to run around watching all the little ones. No better way than popping in a movie to keep everyone entertained for a little while to digest and then start up the activities. Any Disney movies will usually do the trick and what's better adults love Disney too!

6. Tell a story. There are tons of thanksgiving stories to be told! Have everyone gather up in a circle. You can take turns reading if you like, make puppets before hand, have the kids act out what they read...be creative in whatever way you wish. You can find stories about the Native Americans, Pilgrims, The first thanksgiving which ever you like. To get you started some Native American stories can be found here: http://www.apples4theteacher.com/native-american/short-stories/ or first thanksgiving stories: http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/thanksgiving/short-stories/

7. Thanksgiving Word Search. There are many searchable word puzzles you can search on the internet. Once you find one you like simply print off as many copies as you need and throw them on the table for the kids to do.

8. Thanksgiving Turkey. Rather you use your hand to outline, talented enough to be able to draw free hand, or find a pattern to print out to use making turkeys is often a loveable activity and a simple one. You can simply have print outs to color/paint or you can get more creative and buy things like feathers, plastic eyes, buttons, glitter, foam, felt, stickers, etc to liven them up. You can have the kids cut them out to hang up, make puppets out of, make a story board with, the ideas are endless. You can have them write what they are thankful on the turkey or the things they love the most about thanksgiving.

9. Turkey Hat. You need: Scissors, glue or glue stick, colored construction paper, cereal box cardboard, brown paper bags, black marker, and 2 small white pom-poms. Directions: "From the brown paper bags, cut a circle 3 1/2 inches in diameter for the turkey's head. Next, cut a 3-inch-wide band to fit around your child's head. From the cardboard, cut a strip 5 by 1 1/2 inches to use for a neck. Fold it three times accordion style, then glue one end to the back of the paper circle. For a beak, fold yellow construction paper and cut out a small double triangle (1 1/2 inches along the fold). Cut a rounded L from red paper for the turkey's wattle. To create eyes, draw a black circle on each pom-pom with the marker. Glue the eyes, wattle and one side of the beak to the head. Let them dry. Then, glue the loose end of the neck to the center of the headband. Now, wrap the headband around your child's head; mark where the ends overlap, then remove the band and glue the ends. Finally, glue on construction paper feathers and wings. "(Source 3).

10. "Cornucopia. Players sit on chairs forming a circle. There should be one more player than there are chairs. The player without a chair is the leader. The leader points to each of the other players to give them a name, such as "Cranberry, Corn, Apple, Turkey," anything related to Thanksgiving. After names are chosen, the leader calls out two names, "Turkey and potato." Those two players must quickly switch places. The leader keeps calling at a quick pace, until suddenly she says "The cornucopia has tipped over!" Everyone, including the leader, then scrambles for a new place. The player without a seat is the new leader. The leader may give the same name to more than one person." (Source 1).

There yah have it 10 simple, cheap, and enjoyable Thanksgiving activities that everyone can enjoy. There are tons of ideas on the internet and the sources I used have tons more. Remember you can always tweak the directions or materials used as well to suit your creativity! You don't have to always follow all the rules with these fun activities. Have fun and enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Sources:

1. AmazingMom.com. http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/thanksgiving_games.htm. 2007-2008.

2. Amanda Formaro. Kaboose. Tin Can Turkey. http://crafts.kaboose.com/tin-can-turkey.html

3. Familyfun.comTurkey Hat. http://jas.familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts?page=CraftDisplay&craftid=10441