by Trudy Brown

Created on: October 10, 2009   Last Updated: October 21, 2009

For many Americans, Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday. It is a time to be with family and appreciate the blessings in our lives. What better time to spend a little bonding with one of our greatest blessings: our kids?

*Hand print turkey

Hand prints make wonderful turkeys. Brown paint on the palm and thumb; red, orange, yellow, green on the other fingers and you can press a colorful turkey onto paper. Use markers to add legs and a face. Use fabric paint and make prints on linen napkins to decorate your Thanksgiving table. You can also trace your child's hand on brown construction paper and cut out, then cut other "fingers" out of other turkey colors to add between the brown fingers to make a pretty turkey. Write a message on it and send them to relatives as Thanksgiving greetings.

*Natural decorations

Find some well shaped leaves with nice, raised veins and flatten them for a day or so in a book then do leaf rubbings in fall colors to decorate your holiday table. Gather pine cones and use them to make pine cone turkeys by gluing some feathers to one side (you can also make feathers out of construction paper if you prefer) and cutting a neck and head out of brown construction paper to glue to the other side. Use orange construction paper to make the beak and glue to the head. For eyes, you can draw them on or, for a little something extra, glue wiggly eyes on the head.

*Crafts to show thankfulness

Help your children make a "book" to show what they are thankful for. You could make a book out of construction paper and staple it togeher or use a notebook and have your child glue items into the notebook. Have your child draw pictures of things he or she is thankful for or make a list and look through magazines and coloring books or on the Internet for pictures that represent those things. You could even help the child take pictures with a camera of things to put in the book and make a scrapbook. As an alternative to making a book, you could help them make a place mat that features people and things they are thankful for. On the sticky side of a large piece of clear contact paper, arrange picture of items your child is thankful for into a collage. In the center, on a piece of construction paper write a message of thanksgiving. Carefully place another sheet of contact paper, sticky side down, over the top of the collage to seal the place mat.

Making crafts is a great way to help your child feel involved in the family preparations for Thanksgiving. Imagine their pride when they are able to show off their crafts to other family members as they arrive.

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