Kids love being involved in preparations for big family gatherings and with these easy kid's arts and crafts projects for Thanksgiving its easy to provide them with something to do. There's something here for every age and not only will these projects keep them busy for hours, they'll help you prepare your dining area with unique decorations.

*Thanksgiving Day Place Cards

Use an unlined index card or cut one from card stock. Fold the card in half then flatten it out so you can decorate the front half. Write "This family is thankful for..." and the name of a guest. Decorate the edges of the card with colorful fall leaves, a turkey, a pilgrim, an Indian or pumpkins and vines. Refold the card and place on the dining table.

*Thanksgiving Day Scrapbook

Provide each person at the table with a pen and paper and ask them to write down what they are the most thankful for this year. Take photos of each person and paste the photos and slips of paper in a scrapbook. Decorate the page with clip art, frames, stickers and include a napkin from that day. Some ideas for clip art and stickers are pumpkins, pilgrims, Indians, log cabins, rail fences, plump turkeys, praying hands, the Mayflower and tee pees. Use brilliant fall colors and include a few pressed leaves.

*Thanksgiving Day Napkin Rings

Cut the tube from a roll of aluminum foil or wax paper into one-inch circles and paint them in fall colors or cover with fabric. With these you can make several different napkin rings by gluing on various elements such as Indian corn, pumpkins cut from felt with pipe cleaner vines, a small fall leaf, tiny dried flowers or figures that are associated with Thanksgiving. Some figures to make might be an Indian boy and girl, a pilgrim boy and girl, a scarecrow or a turkey.

*Thanksgiving Day Table Centerpiece

Recreate that first Thanksgiving day as the centerpiece of your table with a small log cabin made of twigs and tee-pees made of construction paper. Just roll a sheet of paper into a cone shape and trim the bottom. Decorate it with Indian artwork and insert a few long twigs for the lodge poles. Create the pilgrims and Indians using clothespins or make paper doll type figures.

Use your imagination to make the scene look real; a cooking fire made with pebbles and twigs, use leather from an old glove for buckskin, make tables, benches and fences from wooden matches, cotton for snow and polymer clay for deer, turkey and small cooking pots.

Gather a few branches that have several twigs on them and place them in a large vase. Using colored construction paper, draw and cut-out leaf shapes adding the veins with a colored marker. Gentle wad the leaves and then flatten them out. Glue one or two leaves to each stem on the branches. You can also gather fallen leaves to use.

*Thanksgiving Day Place Mats

On colored strips of paper, write things everyone can be thankful for such as a free country to live in, loving parents, good health, food to eat, clean water to drink, sunshine, rain, pumpkin pie, good friends and holiday get-togethers. Paste the strips on a sheet of paper and laminate or seal with a spray or brush-on sealer.

Another variation is to cut things to be thankful for from a magazine and create a collage on a vinyl place mat or a piece of paper. Once the pictures are glued in place, laminate or seal with decoupage. Pictures to look for are parents, doctors, nurses, teachers, vegetables and fruits, pets, houses, cars, bikes, toys, church, policemen and women, an American flag, a sun, flowers and whatever you are thankful for.

Kids love arts and crafts and they love being involved with holiday planning, so this Thanksgiving, keep them busy for hours with these easy arts and crafts projects for Thanksgiving Day.

Learn more about this author, Pamela Kay.
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