It is very important for my Husband and I to teach our children about counting their blessings and being Thankful {thankful for their faith, family, friends, love and support}. Every night this month at dinner, I have wrote down what each of us are thankful for on a card and hung it up in our kitchen on a rope with clothespins. It has brought much enjoyment: my 5 year old daughter gives her answer thought all day before she settles on one at dinner and we have all taken turns guessing what my almost 2 year old son should be grateful for in his little world!
Here are some more ways you can have fun while teaching your children to be thankful. Get their creative juices flowing while spending quality time together with these easy, Thanksgiving-theme crafts projects.
{3-D Turkey Bag} Kids will love adorning the colorful "feathers" of this brown-bag turkey with all the things they are thankful for.Make It: Start with the turkey's face by folding four punched brown card-stock circles in half and gluing the folds back-to-back to create the fanned head shape. Add an orange card-stock beak, a red card-stock wattle, and two googly eyes for facial features. Then ask your kids to write things they are thankful for on a variety of colored card-stock strips and attach them to the back of the folded-over bag top.
{Pumpkin Pie Spinner} Kids will love adorning the colorful "feathers" of this brown-bag turkey with all the things they are thankful for.
Make It: Start with the turkey's face by folding four punched brown card-stock circles in half and gluing the folds back-to-back to create the fanned head shape. Add an orange card-stock beak, a red card-stock wattle, and two googly eyes for facial features. Then ask your kids to write things they are thankful for on a variety of colored card-stock strips and attach them to the back of the folded-over bag top.
{Thankful Family Photo Holder} Create a Thanksgiving tabletop display by showcasing a favorite family photo on an embellished artificial craft pumpkin. Make It: Spell out "Thankful for Family" with foam letter stickers on the side of the pumpkin, then use a skewer or knife tip to poke a hole in the top of the pumpkin near the stem. Coil a green chenille stem around your thumb several times, squeeze the coils together, and poke the end into the hole in the pumpkin. Insert a family photo into the coils.
{Sticky Note Door Hanger} Kids can write something they are thankful for -- and change it each day -- on the sticky notes that are attached to the front of this Indian corn door hanger.Make It: Start with an unfinished wooden door hanger, then paint the entire hanger with yellow paint. Then use a flat-head pencil eraser to paint multicolor dots on the hanger for the corn kernels. When the paint is dry, glue a partial stack of sticky notes to the bottom of the hanger. Using your computer, print "Today I am thankful for..." onto white card stock, and glue it to the hanger above the notes. Complete the project with raffia tied to the top of the hanger.
{Hand Tree} You'll cherish this Thanksgiving art project not only for the sentiments your child writes on each leaf, but also because the trunk is made from a tracing of your child's hand.Make It: Trace around your child's hand onto a brown paper grocery sack, then cut it out to create the trunk. Next, run the cutout under water, crumple it up, and let it air-dry. For the leaves, paint several coffee filters with assorted watercolors. When they're dry, use a marker to draw leaf shapes onto the filters and write thankful words inside the shapes (protect your surface from marker bleed-through); cut out the pieces. Finish it up by adhering the trunk and leaves to a card-stock background with a glue stick.
{Sunflower Plant} Transform a paper plate into a blooming sunflower plant filled with black bean "seeds" and card-stock "petals."Make It: Paint a paper plate black, then glue black beans to the center of the dry plate. Download the petal pattern, then use it to cut out enough petals from yellow card stock to fit around the rim of the plate. Have your child think of thankful words and phrases to write onto each petal, then glue the pieces to the rim. Make the stem by painting a paint stir stick from the hardware store with green paint, and embellish it with sticker letters and raffia.
{Jar of Thanks} Have everyone in the family fill a glass jar with daily notes about what they are grateful for. When Thanksgiving Day arrives, turn your collection into a colorful garland to hang over your buffet table.
{Postcard of Thanks} Send a sentiment of thanks to friends and loved ones!Make It: Buy cardstock postcards (or make your own). Cut Thanksgiving imagery or abstract patterns from various colors of construction paper and glue to the back of the cards. Cover collaged side of card with a self-adhesive laminating sheet to protect your collage in the mail. Draw a line down the center of the other side of the card, leaving space to include a message, the recipient's address, and a postage stamp.
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