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Thanksgiving Kids Crafts

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Top 5 Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids

Of the hundreds of Thanksgiving crafts I've seen over the years, these five are my favorites. They are easy to make and are a hit with kids. Most can be prepared ahead of time so that minimal help is needed from adults and children can dive right in.

These ideas come from lots of sources. Some will have links to instructions at trusted websites and some have instructions included here.

I've taken pictures of our own versions of these crafts so you can get a good idea of how they look completed. I've also added some tips we've found through trial and error to make the crafts a little easier to make.

Thanksgiving Indian Craft

Our homeschool group made these cute little Indians for our Thanksgiving craft project. Cutting the pieces out ahead of time made the craft extremely kid friendly. All instructions are here at FamilyFun. You may have to click on the "view craft" button for instructions.

When you click over to FamilyFun, you'll see that the webpage has instructions for Indians AND pilgrim people, but I've only made the Indians. The pilgrim people are cute too, but require more handling.

Pictured here is a regular sized Indian (tissue paper tube) and an x-large Indian we made just for fun. For the x-large Indian, we used a huge heavy-duty cardboard tube (a tube used for mailing posters etc.) and adjusted the size of the other materials. If I can find a HUGE paper tube (surely someone makes one) I'd love to make a life-size Indian this way. I think it would be a great project/challenge for teenagers to make.

Turkey Treats

A perfect craft for Thanksgiving Day

This is one of my all time favorite Thanksgiving Crafts. It was published in a 1993 issue of Southern Living magazine and I've kept it all of these years. It's really cute and kids enjoy making and eating these turkeys. Because it is so old, it is not listed at their website, but I simply must share it and give Southern Living and contributor Elizabeth Yarborough credit for the idea.
I've added my own ideas too and denoted those with an asterisk*.
Update: Scroll to the bottom of the page to see a really cooky version of this treat.

Turkey Treats
Oreos (cream filled chocolate sandwich cookies)
Red Cinnamon Candies (or red M&M Minis*)
Whoppers (malted milk balls)
Chocolate frosting (or peanut butter*)
Candy Corn

You can probably tell from the picture exactly what you need to do, but here's a quick run down.
1. Separate chocolate cookie carefully, leaving filling intact on one of the halves and set aside.
2. Attach a red cinnamon candy (or red M&M Mini) to a malted milk ball with a little frosting (or peanut butter).
3. Attach the malted milk ball to a cookie half with creme filling using a dap of frosting (or peanut butter).
4. Spread chocolate frosting (or peanut butter) onto the half of the cookie with no creme filling.
5. Arrange candy corn in a fan shape on chocolate frosted cookie halves leaving a space in the center for the malted milk ball. This is your turkey tail.
6. Attach turkey tail to turkey body (malted milk ball) using chocolate frosting.

Candy Turkey Craft

Southern Living

Southern Living (1-year)

Amazon Price: $19.95 (as of 05/27/2012)

I found the above craft in a 1993 issue of Southern Living. There are always gems of ideas for crafts, decorating and cooking. Don't miss this wonderful magazine.

Leaves

Stained Glass Window Leaves

These are best displayed in a window

This craft involves scraping crayons to get colorful crayon shavings. These shavings are then melted between layers of waxed paper with a warm iron.

This project is best to do at home (vs. classroom) because of the iron etc.

The light shines through the melted crayon and they really do look like stained glass. All instructions are here at Kaboose.

This idea can be used for any holiday. For Christmas, a tree shape could be used with green crayon bits. For Easter, an egg shape could be used with multi-colored bits.

If you like this window craft, you might also like the Tissue Paper Fall Leaf Sun Catchers listed below under More excellent Thanksgiving Crafts.

Turkey Hats

Turkey Hat

If you want to be just plain silly, make these turkey hats. All instructions are here at FamilyFun. This craft is another one that can be cut out and prepared ahead of time.

A couple of things I changed to make this craft better for kids were: I used googly eyes (instead of pom-poms) for the eyes and I used tape and a gluestick when possible instead of white glue. We DID use white glue for the eyes, but another option if you want to avoid white glue for the eyes is Glue Dots. If you've never used Glue Dots, they are small clear sticky dots about 1/4 inch in diameter. They are VERY sticky and kids will need help using them, but the upside is that they do not need to dry like white glue. They come on a roll and you can find them at any craft store.

Turkey Shirts

Sweatshirt Turkey with Hand and Footprints

Handprints and a footprint make the cutest turkey! There are lots of versions of this craft, but I like this one best. I still have the one we made when my daughter was little.

All you need is a light colored sweatshirt or t-shirt and some acrylic paints: red, yellow, brown, white and black. Oh, and a child willing to rub their hands and a foot in some paint (this won't be hard to find). Step-by-step instructions are below.

This would make a special Thanksgiving gift for a grandparent.

Making a turkey sweatshirt from hand and footprints

Insert cardboard or other thick paper into your shirt so it will not stick together.

Help your child rub his or her hand in red paint (a paper plate works well) and make 3 handprints in a fan pattern. Wash hands and let paint dry.

Repeat procedure using yellow paint making 2 handprints this time. Wash hands and let paint dry.

Now repeat procedure with brown paint and child's FOOT. Make sure the heel is up to make the turkey's head. The child's toes will be the turkey's feet. Wash child's foot and let paint dry.

Now paint 2 white circles for the turkey's eyes. And paint a red shape for the waddle. Let paint dry.

Now finish the turkey's eyes with 2 black cirlces. Add a beak of a yellow circle.

More excellent Thanksgiving Crafts

I've been out scouring the internet for the BEST Thanksgiving crafts. Enjoy!

Bonnet style Pilgrim hat for girls: This is the best pilgrim hat I've ever seen. Don't miss it.
Cool Indian Corn Magnet: You may have to click past an ad or two to get to the craft. Use chenille stems and tri-beads to make an ultra-cool Indian Corn Magnet.
Tissue Paper Fall Leaf Sun Catchers: Don't miss this one! I hunted around the internet to find the most kid-friendly version and I think this one is it.
Turkey Puppet: Really cute turkey puppet made from a brown lunch bag. Scroll down to: Thanksgiving Paper Bag Craft #2 - Turkey Puppet.
Tree Branch Craft: Use a real tree branch and add your own colorful construction paper leaves. Add notes of thankfulness to the leaves if you like.
M&M Treat Patterns: Make simple patterns to decorate your Thanksgiving Treats with M&Ms.
Harvest Blessing Snack Mix: I will be making this one without a doubt. It's the first time I've seen it. Several snacks (bugels, candy corn etc.) are mixed together and each represents part of the harvest season. A note is included and given as a gift.
Mouse Napkin Rings: This one is more of a simple print-out and cut-out craft, but I included it because it is adorable!
Indian leg fringes: I can see the little Indians now! The idea for this is genius. Kids would love this to go with an Indian headdress. The instructions recommend using newspaper, but using brown paper bags would be the right color. Or if you are feeling REALLY crafty you could go all out and use brown duct tape (if you can find it). Tape sticky sides together to make a long sheet of brown duct tape. If that's not wide enough add another "sheet" to widen it. Then cut fringes with scissors. If you do this, send me a picture and I'll feature it here.
Corn Husk Doll: This one is a little more involved, but well worth the effort. Children love corn husk dolls. Step by step instructions here.
Woven Thanksgiving Placemats: Here's the all-time favorite woven placemat. Use lots of fall colors for the best result!
Paper Pumpkin: Just found this one and of course we HAD to make one of these. We didn't have a stamper to make designs on the orange paper, so we used a thin orange marker and made random swirly lines instead. It worked GREAT. One more thing: they don't say this in the instructions, but you WILL need to punch holes for the second brad. You'll see what I mean. Update: I just added a picture of our paper pumpkin at the bottom of this list if you'd like to see it.
String of Leaves: This would be a wonderful project for a classroom. Several leaf shapes could be offered with a variety of colors of construction paper. Each child could do 2 or 3 leaves making a festive decoration. And I bet each child could pick out their own leaf which always makes a child feel special.
Acorn Necklace: This link is not to a crafting site, it is actually only to a picture to show an idea. It's a necklace made from a double-acorn. Instead of the leather necklace "chain" shown, a child could use yarn. The yard could even be tied in a knot around the acorn stem to make sure it doesn't come off.
Indian Vest: Here's a vest to go with a headband or Indian fringes (above), made from a brown paper bag. There's a picture of a little boy wearing one of these vests and he is so proud to be wearing it. He is beaming!
Turkey Cupcakes from Betty Crocker: Another option for turkey themed treats. These are really cute.
Construction Paper Indian Corn - Nice!: I'm inspired with a million springboard ideas after seeing this really cool indian corn made with wonderful bit of fall colors. Even little kids can do this.
Candy Corn Stained Glass Window Art: Just like the craft in my Top 5 list, this candy corn uses crayon shavings. A little messy but the results are breathtaking!

Here's our paper pumpkin.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.

I'm a craft junkie. Here are more of my craft ramblings...

Another Treat Project

Here's a spin on the Turkey Treats!

We got the idea to make another version of the "Turkey Treats". My daughter and I dug through the half-price Halloween candy and found these really neat pink and purple candy corns. We also found...you won't believe it...strawberry flavored (pink) Whoppers candy. We used vanilla flavored creme-filled cookies and vanilla frosting. It looks like a Flamingo to me, but nobody's buying it since Flamingo's don't have fan tails.

We also heard that there were blue and green candy corns for sale, but we didn't see any. I think the blue and green ones would have made an awesome Peacock.

Please let me know you stopped by

Please stop by each Thanksgiving to see what's new

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seosmm Nov 27, 2011 @ 5:53 am | delete

Very nice lens!

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amieljaven Nov 24, 2011 @ 4:13 am | delete

Super nice lens. Thanks for sharing. Squid-liked!

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lauraklebsch Nov 8, 2011 @ 12:40 pm | delete

i have 6 kids that are going to have a good weekend thanks to your lens. all these great ideas should fill our weekend well. thanks

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wcjohnston Nov 6, 2011 @ 7:29 pm | delete

very creative lens, great job

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Pastiche Nov 6, 2011 @ 6:03 am | delete

Just stopped by looking for ideas for my grandkids Thanksgiving crafts ... and to leave a blessing for these fun and creative kids Thanksgiving crafts.
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