I’m still in a sugar haze from Halloween and it hits me…Thanksgiving is mere weeks away and we have no decorations up! In a panic I fly through the house whisking away remnants of Jack O’ Lanterns, skeletons and bats and coat the house in scarecrows and Happy Harvest signage. Ok, maybe I’m exaggerating a tad, but I do love when my home has a good holiday feel to it. Of course homemade decor is the best and if my kids are the ones creating it, it’s even better! Here are some craft ideas that are inexpensive, easy for all age levels and will leave you with a unique Thanksgiving ambiance faster than you can say “Gobble, Gobble.”
The Noodle Turkey — this craft is perfect for building fine motor skills and practicing colors and patterns.
What you’ll need:
- Yellow or orange foam sqaure
- Red glitter foam square
- Scissors
- Elmer’s Glue
- Two googly eyes
- A small bowl of garden variety rotini noodles
- Posterboard in white or a fall color like brown or red
Step 1: Trace a circle on the yellow or orange foam, the size of a cereal bowl and have your child cut it out if they can.
Step 2: Glue the circle onto a piece of heavy cardboard (I use posterboard that I cut down).
Step 3: Glue on the googly eyes
Step 4: Cut the red glitter foam into the shape of a turkey wattle and glue it on the turkey under the eyes
Step 5: Have the child pick colored noodles from the bowl and glue them on as feathers. My daughter wanted to make them into a color pattern!
Cute, easy and colorful for your home!
The Cornucopia of Thanks — great for practicing handwriting and talking about why we’re thankful.
What you’ll need:
- Different colored construction paper or foam squares (food colors, for making fruit and vegetables)
- A pre-drawn cornucopia that is empty (I found several sites online that have these as coloring sheets by typing in “Empty Cornucopia”)
- A pen or Sharpie in black
- Elmer’s Glue
- Posterboard in any color for mounting when done
Step 1: Have your child cut large (bowl size) fruits and vegetables, aprox. 5-10 out of the construction paper or foam squares. We used a basic circle for an orange, an apple, an oval for a pear, a crescent for a banana, oval for a gourd…etc.
Step 2: Have your child write one thing they are thankful for on each shape and talk it through together, that’s the fun part!
Step 3: Have your child cut out the empty cornucopia, they can color it if they’d like, and glue it to the posterboard which you will cut to size.
Step 4: Glue all the thankful fruits and vegetables onto the posterboard to appear like they are coming out of the cornucopia and hang in a heavy traffic area so you can revisit it throughout the month!
This is great to keep each year and reflect back or to put in the baby book!
When your basic crafts are completed, another fun and festive family activity for Thanksgiving is a centerpiece that doubles as a Secret Santa tie in for the Christmas, Hanukah or other gift giving holiday this season:
- Take a small baking pumpkin and drill or cut holes all over it for the amount of people that will be at your Thanksgiving dinner.
- Use sucker sticks (found in the baking aisle of craft stores) or popsicle sticks and color code the ends that will be inserted into the pumpkin.
- Put the sticks in randomly and create a chart for the table with each person and their assigned color.
- At dinner have everyone pull a stick and check to see who they have — that is who you will give a gift to at your holiday party in the following weeks! It’s a great way to kick off the holiday season and get in the spirit!
Now that you have your house completely covered in Harvest Hoopla, sit back, relax and prepare to eat, eat, eat! Happy Thanksgiving!
