The First Thanksgiving Bracelet

 

 
 
 
 
I made these bracelets with the children in my playgroup at our Thanksgiving party to help them understand and retell the story of the first Thanksgiving. Each bead represents an important part of he first Thanksgiving and the events that led up to it.

 

 

The first brown bead represents the pilgrims who fled England seeking religious freedom.

The second bead is white, it represents the white sails of the Mayflower, the ship the pilgrims sailed on.

Next, is 3 blue beads that represent the huge ocean that the pilgrims sailed across to reach the New World. It was a long, long trip.

The green bead represents the land that the pilgrims finally saw!

The 3 white beads represent the very long and hard winter and all of the snow that came during the pilgrims first winter.

The light green bead represents the arrival of Spring.

The tan bead represents the Native American Indians that helped the pilgrims and taught them how to plant vegetables and live off of the land.

The last four beads represent the first Thanksgiving feast:

red for cranberries,

yellow for corn,

brown for turkey,

and orange for pumpkin.

Before the Native American's and the pilgrims ate, the all joined hands (twist the ends of the pipe cleaner closed) and spoke of everything that they were thankful for.

 

Tissue Paper Leaf Sun Catcher

We had a blast making our Tissue Paper Leaf Sun Catchers at our playdate last week, they were so much fun that we had to make another one! This is a great craft for a playdate or for a Fall party because it is easy to do and is very inexpensive. 

 

 

You can pick up everything you need in the dollar store-- clear contact paper, colored tissue paper, and construction paper. You will also need a pencil, a piece of string, scissors, and a hole punch.

 

 

Fold 1 piece of construction paper in half. Draw or trace (Google leaf template images) a leaf onto the paper and cut it out. Then cut small squares out of the tissue paper. A little goes a log way, I cut 1 strip off of each piece of tissue paper and then cut it into small squares.

 

 

Cut a rectangular piece of contact paper that when folded in half, will fill the leaf window that you made in the paper. Remove the paper from half of the contact paper and cover it with small pieces of tissue paper. Be sure to overlap the piece of tissue paper like you are making a collage.

 

 

Remove the paper backing from the other half of the contact paper and fold it over the side that has the tissue paper.

 

Open your construction paper and place your contact paper/tissue paper sandwich inside, covering the leaf window.

 

 

Glue and/or tapethe contact paper to hold it in place between both sides of the construction paper.

 

You can leave your sun catcher as is or trim it with your scissors.

Punch a hole in it and put your sting threw to hang it.

 

The sun shines nicely through it-- today was not a very sunny day, it actually snowed and rained all day, but you get the idea!

 

I am planning on making more of these with my little one in different designs, I will keep you posted!

 

Cute Toilet Paper Roll Turkey

 

My little guy made this adorable little turkey tonight before he went to bed. It is simply made using   a toilet paper roll, feathers, a small cardboard circle, foam paper for the beak and the gobble, googely eyes, and feather. Oh yeah and the best invention ever-- Glue Dots! My son made this in minutes, I helped him with the glue dots and he handled everything else. I reinforced the feathers with scotch tape to be safe. This turkey is ready for Thanksgiving! Are you?

Cereal Glove Turkey

 

 

We had some fun today creating our little cereal turkeys! Our turkey's feathers are Fruit Loops cereal. My little guy really enjoyed sorting (and eating) the Fruit Loops! Our turkey's body consists of Cherios and Alphabits cereal. I made the beak and gobble out of foam paper, but you could also use construction paper. I tied the glove closed with a small rubber band and stuck a small circle of cardboard on the bottom to help him stand. He is very colorful and absolutely delish-- Just ask my little guy! These are cute to add to your Thanksgiving table, especially at a child's place setting, and would also make a great Thanksgiving treat for any child!

 

Mr. Turkey Color Recognition Felt Activity

This fun felt activity focuses on color recognition, it is a lot of fun to make and do with your preschooler. My son enjoys this one even though he is now a pro with colors. It fits the theme of Thanksgiving, but great for year around fun too! 

 

 Mr. Turkey is so sad, he has lost his beautiful colorful feathers. Have your little one help him find all of his feathers so that he can be happy once again!

 

 

Mr. Turkey was so sad.

He lost the feathers he once had.

Now he wants us to help him find all of the feathers of his kind.

We will look both high and low, we will fid them, don't you know.

Here's a red one and a blue.

Look, we've found a green one too.

Here's an orange one and a yellow, soon he'll be a feathered fellow.

Now we've found the purple one, black and white--we're almost done!

If we just look up and down, I know we'll find the feather brown.

Now, Mr. Turkey is so glad!

We found the feathers he once had!

Leaf Placemats for Thanksgiving

Last week, we had some friends over for a playdate. We  had a blast making these fun Fall themed placemats. We decided to add some cute handprint turkeys to them to make them perfect for Thanksgiving. These were fun and easy to make. The kids loved going outside and searching for leaves to add to their placemat. 

 

 

To make these, you need 2 pieces of clear contact paper cut to the size of a placemat. I picked up rolls of contact paper from the Dollar Tree, I got 2 placemats (4 pieces) from each roll.  Take the paper backing off of 1 piece of contact paper and lay it sticky side up on your work space.

Place your leaves and handprint turkey wherever you like onto the sticky side of contact paper.
*I chose to cut out our handprint turkey, some didn't.

 

 

Once everything is in place, put the second sheet of contact paper on top of the first one. I found the easiest way to do this is to take the paper off as you go-- Remove the paper about an inch or two and stick that to the bottom sheet. Then, repeat with a few more inches. Continue to repeat until you are done.

 

 

Smooth the contact paper out to make sure it sticks and then trim the ends with scissors so that they are even. 

 

 

There you have it, a wonderful kid-made placemat for your child to use and show-off  on Thanksgiving!

My son is loving his, he cannot wait to show it to his Grandma & Poppie on Thanksgiving!

 

I plan on making these with the kids again next year, I think I may do them a little earlier so that we can highlight all of the beautiful colors of Fall. Here in PA, the leaves are mostly brown by the time November rolls around.

Handprint Turkey's

 

I love making these Handprint Turkeys with my kids for Thanksgiving.

They are a lot of fun and they double as a decoration and a keepsake! Every year after we make them, we compare them to last year's turkeys to see how much their hands have grown.

 

 

They are easy to make, you just 5 colors of paint, one being brown.

Paint your child's hand like shown and have them stick it on a piece of paper.

After the handprint dries, add eyes, a beak, a gobble, and little legs if you desire.

Turkey Cupcakes for Thanksgiving

 

These little Turkey Cupcakes were the highlight of one of our playdates last week! Not only did the kids enjoy eating them, but they had a blast putting them together! With a little help, even the younger kids were able to make a turkey cupcake of their own. These would be absolutely adorable for a children's Thanksgiving party or for a special kid's dessert on Thanksgiving.

 

To make your own turkey cupcakes, you will need cupcakes, chocolate icing (if you don't like chocolate, you could try to dye vanilla icing brown), black cake gel for the eyes (you could also use a dab of icing to stick mini chocolate chips on for the eyes), Fruit Rollups (you could also use Fruit By the Foot), Vienna Cookies (Nutter Butter Cookies work great too), and some toothpicks.

 

 

We got the rainbow fruit rollups and cut them into strips. You will need 1 Fruit Rollup per cupcake that you want to make.

 

Fold each strip over a toothpick to make the feathers.

 

 

         Before you fold over the red and yellow pieces, cut a little piece off to make the gobble (red) and a little triangle for the beak (yellow).

 

Ice the cupcakes and get decorating!!