Thanksgiving Craft Ideas

Will you have a house full of children for Thanksgiving? Or maybe you would just like to get your own children involved in preparing and decorating your home for Thanksgiving Day. Children love being involved and helping out when it comes to the holidays. Here are a few Thanksgiving craft ideas for your children to enjoy.

A pine cone turkey is great fun to make and can even be used as a festive Thanksgiving decoration. You will need a nice large, open pine cone for each turkey you want to make. You will also need some brown, red, orange and yellow construction paper, a pencil or pen, scissors and hot glue. You can also use some googly eyes and glue if you would like.

First off it is easier to hold the pine cone steady if you use some clay or even play dough to place the pine cone on. This will keep the pinecone from rolling around while you are trying to create your turkey. As I'm sure you know, the pine cone will be the body of your turkey and the construction paper will be the tail feathers. Draw out some feathers on the construction paper, making sure to vary colors so that your turkey will have a nice colorful tail. Then let your children cut the feathers out. With the pine cone laying on it's side, you will then proceed to glue the "feathers" to the top of the wide end of the pine cone. Just alternate the colors and go from one side to the other in order to produce a beautiful and large tail on your turkey. Next draw out a long neck and head on a sheet of red construction paper and have your child cut it out. You can then glue googly eyes on it and then glue it to the small end of the pine cone. Once it's all dry you will have a great and festive decoration for Thanksgiving that your children will be happy to announce they helped to make.

A hand and foot turkey is some that my girls enjoy a lot. You will need at least one willing child to help you with this project. You'll also need brown, orange, red and yellow construction paper, googly eyes, glue and scissors. First use your child by tracing both of their feet on the brown construction paper. Then trace both hands on each sheet of the orange, red and yellow construction paper. The footprints will become that turkey's body and the handprints will become the tail feathers.

Let your child cut everything out. Once done, you should end up with two brown footprints and three sets of handprints. You will then glue the two footprints together. The heels will be together but the toes should be pointing away from each other. The heels will be the turkey's head. Glue the googly eyes to the turkey's head. Cut out an orange beak and two small legs for the turkey. Glue the beak and legs onto the turkey. Lastly, glue the handprints to the back edges of the turkey, going up the sides and over the top. This will create a nice colorful tail. Once it's all dry you will have a cute Thanksgiving decoration that you can hang anywhere in your home. If you have children of different ages then it's fun to see the size differences between their turkeys.

A string of leaves is a very simple and easy Thanksgiving craft. You only need some red, orange, yellow and brown construction paper, crayons or markers, scissors, glue or tape and a long piece of yarn. Start by drawing leaves with large stems on the construction paper. Have your children cut out all of the leaves. Next have your children decorate the leaves with veins or whatever they like. Fold the stems in half and then tape, glue or staple the stems over the yarn. Do this with each leaf until your yarn is full. Then hang your string of leaves around your house. You can make several of these to adorn your doorways and/or diningroom. These can make any home look festive for Thanksgiving Day.

Next up is the Thanksgiving Tree. This is a great project for the whole family. You will need a sheet of white poster board, pencil, markers or crayons, red, yellow and orange construction paper, scissors and glue or tape. On each sheet of construction paper trace your child's hand. If you have more than one child make sure to do their hands also. Have your children cut them all out.

On the poster board draw out a bare tree form with multiple branches. Have your children color it brown. Once that is finished have your children write one thing that they are thankful for on each leaf. Next tape or glue the leaves onto the tree branches. You can then hang this up as a Thanksgiving decoration. This is also a great activity to keep the kids busy when you are busy cooking that perfect turkey. You can have your children help you get all the supplies prepared ahead of time so that when all of those cousins arrive they can all sit down and get started on writing what they are thankful for. Then have them share their tree with the family at dinner.

Lastly is the easy indian headband. Kids love running around with these on while pretending to be the indians od the past. For this activity you will need various colors of construction paper, scissors and tape or staples. Start by cutting 1 inch wide long strips of brown construction paper. Then cut out various colors of feathers. Place a strip of brown paper around your child's head and staple or tape the ends. Next glue or tape the "feathers" onto the strip. It's as easy as that.

I hope that these craft ideas will be of some use to you and your children during the Thanksgiving holiday.