Thanksgiving Crafts and Treats Kids Can Make: Pilgrim Power

Fun Pilgrim Crafts and Treats Kids Can Make

Don't forget about the pilgrims this Thanksgiving. When kids make fun pilgrim crafts and treats, it reinforces our American history, and emphasizes the reason the pilgrims were thankful. What a delicious, clever combination: History combined with chocolate, felt and photos.

Thanksgiving Treats Kids Can Make: Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats

Kids can make these edible pilgrim hats using three of their favorite things: Marshmallows, chocolate chips and cookies. You'll need:

24 marshmallows
24 round thin chocolate covered cookies or chocolate pinwheel striped cookies
12 ounces chocolate chips
Small candy mint or yellow frosting
Wooden toothpicks
Wax paper

1. Spread out some wax paper on a tray and set the cookies on it, chocolate side up, with space between them.
2. Melt the chocolate chips in a bowl in the microwave in 1 minute intervals until syrupy.
3. Stick a wooden toothpick in one marshmallow, then dip it into the melted chocolate chips. Spoon more chocolate on the marshmallow top as needed.
4. Center marshmallow on top of a cookie and use a second toothpick to gently hold the marshmallow down while you pull out the first toothpick.
5. Place the tray in the refrigerator to chill the hats until the chocolate sets.
6. Bring out the tray and add a buckle on the center of each hat using a small yellow candy mint, or a buckle made from yellow decorator frosting

   See picture and video.

Thanksgiving Crafts Kids Can Make: Pilgrim Napkin Rings with Photos

How fun for your Thanksgiving guests to see your children's shining faces at every place setting! Use the smallest size of their school pictures, or scan pictures into the computer. Resize them a little bigger than postage stamps; on thick paper, print out as many photos as you will have guests. You'll also need:

Black construction paper
White paper doilies
White construction paper
Glue
Transparent tape
Scissors

1. Cut 2 inch deep strips of black paper, about 7 or 8 inches long
2. Trim the photos at the neck above the shoulder and around the face..
3. Cut a collar from the white paper doily for each girl, sized proportionately to the face in the photo.
4. Cut a collar from the plain white paper for every boy
5. Paste the collars in the center of each strip.
6. Glue the photo faces above the white collars.
7. Make simple hats for each head: A curved white paper strip to go on top of each girl's hair; a simple tall black hat narrowing at the top for each boy, sitting on a black brim. Add a small white square for the buckle.
8. Glue each hat to a photo face.
9. Form circles with the strips, big enough for rolled napkins to fit inside, and tape the ends together.

See picture here.

Thanksgivings Crafts Kids Can Help Make: Pill Bottle Pilgrims

Ma and Pa Pilgrim are ready to chow down on wooden vegetables at the Thanksgiving feast! And to think you can make them from pill bottles and felt. The kids will need help making Ma and Pa Pilgrim, mainly because of the hot glue gun. First gather up supplies from your craft closet, or the craft shop:

Wiggly eyes, 2^nd from smallest size
Pink pom poms for little noses
Felt squares in dark blue, tan, brown, white, pink, red, and light blue.
Pill bottles, one tall and one short. (Spice bottles work too. Or cardboard tubes.)
Hot glue gun with ammo.

1. Cut two 2 inch strips of pink felt, one for him, one for her, long enough to wrap around each bottle.
2. Cut four little pink shapes for hands. Each one looks like a filled in capital D.
3. Cut two pointy collars out of white felt and leave a straight strip to wrap around.
4. Cut a square of white felt for her hat, pinch sides together so it puckers.
5. Cut about a 2 inch strip of light blue for her dress. (See how tall your bottles are.)
6. Cut a square of light blue for the top of her hat.
7. Cut a few strands of yellow yarn for her hair, or make circles of brown felt.
8. Cut about a 3 inch strip of dark blue for his outfit. (See how tall your bottles are.)
9. Cut a 1.5 - 2 inch strip of tan felt for his hat and a circle for the hat top.
10. Cut little rectangles of black felt for his sideburns.
11. Cut about ¼ inch of brown felt for the strap on his hat.
12. Cut him a buckle out of tan, or find a half a snap.

Faces: Glue a pink felt strip at the top and around the bottle for each face. Ma and Pa Pilgrim each get 2 wiggly eyes, and a pink pom pom nose. Use a little piece of red yarn or felt for the mouths. Draw in eyebrows.

Clothes: Glue the strips of blue felt around the bottles for their outfits, dark blue for him, light blue for her. The felt should extend from just under the mouths to the bottom of the bottles. Center and glue the white pointy collars under the faces, on top of the blue felt. (You can use a doily for hers if you have one.)

Hats and hair:

Ma Pilgrim: Glue on little pieces of yellow yarn around her face, or use felt circles in brown or yellow to look like curls. Then pinch the sides and glue the white square on top of her head. Glue the blue square on top of that, remembering to poke the sides in while the glue is still hot for a puckered look.

Pa Pilgrim: Glue his sideburns on. Glue the tan strip around his head, and glue a narrow dark brown strip in the middle of that. Put a buckle in the center using felt or half a snap. Glue a tan circle on the top of his hat with the edges tucked inside the hat.

Hands and Vegetables/Fruit:
Use artificial berries or wooden beads as vegetables and glue them below each pilgrim's collar. Next, glue the pink hands at each side of the veggies. Make a little curved strip of felt and glue under the produce to look like a basket.

: