Thanksgiving Crafts

Trying to teach young children the reason that we celebrate Thanksgiving can be hard because they are not always old enough to understand the true meaning of the holiday. Even though they cannot understand the true meaning of the holiday, they can still participate in giving thanks and showing what they are thankful for.

Here are some activities that you can do with preschoolers to help them celebrate Thanksgiving.

Number one: Turkey Sweatshirts

You can have each kid make a unique sweatshirt for Thanksgiving. Each child will need to bring in a sweatshirt that can be painted. You will need to have some type of paint that will adhere to the fabric of the sweatshirt once it has dried, you will also need numerous paintbrushes. The turkey will be made by painting the child's hand with paint and having the child place their hand onto the sweatshirt. To put the turkey image on the sweatshirt you need to paint the palm and thumb of the child's hand with brown paint, you can then paint the rest of their fingers different colors to represent the feathers. Once the hand has been painted carefully, direct the child's hand to the sweatshirt and place it firmly on the sweatshirt. Once the paint has dried, feet and gobbler can be added.

Number two: Thanksgiving tablecloth

You can have the entire class work together to make a tablecloth or you can make one at home with your own children. To begin this project you will need to have at least one plain white tablecloth. You will also need sponges that are shaped like turkeys, leaves, or other things related to Thanksgiving. You can buy the sponges or you can create your own "stamps" with things you have laying around. For example, you can use feathers dipped in paint to leave feather stenciled onto the tablecloth, you can cut and apple or pear in half for fruit shapes, etc. Make sure you use colors that are fall colors, such as orange, brown, and yellow.

Number three: Thankful feathers

This is an activity that you can have kids and parents do together because it helps children learn about things that they are thankful and allows them to spend time with their families. What you need to do is cut out a feather shape, one for each child, and send it home to have the family decorate it with things that they are thankful for. Gather together all of the feathers and place them together to form the feathers of a turkey on a bare turkey.

Number four: Indian corn

A favorite decoration around Thanksgiving is the Indian corn that you see in stores, you can have your kids make their own version. To do this project you will need an empty paper towel roll and popcorn packing peanuts. You will want to have the kids glue the packing peanuts onto the paper towel roll. Using a paper lunch sack you want to cut three strips down the bag about ¾ of the way, this is for the cornhusks. Place the paper towel tube inside the paper bag and glue the top and bottom of the paper towel tube to the paper bag. Once everything is dry, the kids can paint the packing peanuts in brown, purple, yellow, and orange. For added effect you can glue yellow yarn or ribbon onto the top of the paper towel roll, this will represent the corn silk.

These are only a handful of activities that you can find for kids to do on Thanksgiving, but along with each activity, you should discuss why we celebrate Thanksgiving and what people are thankful for.