Thanksgiving Ideas

Time to be thankful & try not to lose it when the kids are home from school! Just kidding, but it's a good time to do some fun stuff together in light of this holiday. So I'm going to share with you a few things we have done and stumbled on, with a budget in mind.

TURKEYS!-

This is a good excuse to go for a nature walk pick up some pine cones or in our case a magnolia tree seed pod. Get some fun stuff out to make your items into turkeys. We used some glue (glitter & regular), googly eyes, foam sheets, construction paper, feathers (or cut out construction paper feathers) and scissors.

If you want go ahead and cut out some of those construction paper fathers and while you're at it cut out a circle for each turkey head you need. We used foam sheets for the other items. Two triangles for each beak and two squares per turkey for feet, and a free form wavy thing for the wobble.

Assemble time! Get your glue, turkey body and little bits!

We chose to use the stem like a turkey neck, though if you are lucky an have a pine cone you can probably have a taller turkey an just glue the head where you want it.

Glue your beak. What we did was add a strip of white glue then placed on, maybe you prefer tacky glue, but hot glue seemed like a bad idea for a kid's craft.

Now, dots of glue for the googly eyes.

Strip of glue for the wobble. Attach.

Dots of glue for your little square feet. Add them to bottom of your seed pod or pine cone.

Does your turkey's face look something like this? Maybe a little less running wet glue? ;)  Don't worry if not, it's always easy to fix. Everyone good? Time to move on to the next step.

Glue your feathers, real or paper to the backside of your turkey. Our original plan was both, but we ended up just leaving it alone after a few feathers on each.

If you are making a little extra sparkly turkey, add your glitter glue now. 

Let your turkeys dry. Enjoy.

Cheap Crafts-

Never underestimate the power of a cheap little craft at Micheal's. I picked up this few cent scarecrow on a whim and let the kiddo get to work with some of my sharpies and it was a nice little time of peace and quiet.  Love their little kid holiday craft options and love their new app with coupons always at the edge of my figure tips.

If you want it to look extra finished use a Modge Podge or a sealant spray.

Links-

A few extra ideas to check out look at these:

First Thanksgiving from National Geographic Kids

Cute turkey out of family hands, thanks to "One Artsy Mama."

Free Print for the Kids' Table on the big day, from "Be Different Act Normal."

A few Books to Read with the Little Ones-

"One is a Feast for Mouse: A Thanksgiving Tale" by Judy Cox

"Thanks for Thanksgiving" by Julie Markes

"The Littlest Pilgrim" by Brandi Dougherty

Hope these ideas keep your Thanksgiving week a little more bonding and a little less crazy.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Thankful Wreath

*If you remember I had a idea for the leaves that survived from the Fall Leaves post, this is that idea.

It's almost Thanksgiving so I wanted my family to reflect on what we have to be thankful for, so why not make it into something we can see and tie in the autumn feeling? So I thought this Thankful Wreath would be a cute easy idea for us.

If you still need to collect some leaves look out for the flatest ones or if you can collect them and let them dry in heavy book. Our's were pretty flat but I didn't mind casualties and crunching when we were gluing the leaves to the poster board. I assume nothing is going to turn out perfect with a 3 year old involved, it's just the experience that's important.

Besides the leaves you need a poster board (we used a orange, but whatever color that ties in the leaves is fine), glue, pencil, sharpie & 2 round objects, 1 large an 1 small (we used bowls).

I let my daughter do the circle tracing with a pencil. First the large. Try to get closest to the edges so you can maximize use of the paper. It comes in handy as something to lay under wreath when gluing. You will also need the same color as the foundation to trace out leaves to write your special thankful message.

Now try to get your small circle as center as possible.

Your turn. ;) Time to cut out the tracings. I tried to cut as close to the outer circle for the reasons I mentioned above, but for the inner circle I just folded it in half & went for it.

During that time I had my daughter pick out her 3 favorite leaves. Try to keep in mind size, so you can fit what each of you are thankful for. One for Daddy, Mommy, & Riley. So if you are doing this with multiple children you'll need more and let them choose.

This was my turn, but your child maybe totally capable. Trace each leaf. I did it with sharpie so I wouldn't lose the leaf's details.

Cut & write messages. We had Dad leave us a note of what he was thankful for since he would be at work & unable to join us. Once again I just used my little black sharpie. But here's either your kid's chance to write or draw out what they are thankful for or time to get your toddler to understand what they are appreciative for.

Fun time. Let your kids have fun with whatever glue you preference, we used just a craft glue. I tried to suggest to start big. It's easier to fill in gaps with little ones, plus you can stick stems under other leaves as you go. After it was all filled up I laid some heavy flat objects on top to easy the flattening process. Clearly toddler hands already did a lot of crunching so it wasn't a worry. But if you are worried, either skip this step or every few minutes check & fill in damage with some smaller leaves on top.

Now that it's all dry hang away. :) We just used a thumb tack. Not much weight an there was a perfect gap between leaf and poster, but there's always those double sided tape, gel deal. Whatever is easier for your household.

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