By Kristin Fitch
Thanksgiving is such an amazing holiday. It focuses to togetherness, being thankful, and feasting.There should be more holidays that focus on such positive things, instead of gifts or goodies. Many schools have Thanksgiving parties or feasts or Harvest parties. Whether you are coordinating a school class party or want a few ideas to do crafts or activities with your own children on Thanksgiving here are a few ideas for parties or to do at home.
First, we recommend that you pick 1 simple craft, 1 activity (ex. read a seasonal story or word search), and a small treat or food to eat. If you follow that process the party should be manageable. The other recommendation is to divide up tasks between several room parents if you are doing a school, or church party. Many or our school classrooms have 2-3 room helpers. One parent might be in charge of deciding on a craft and getting supplies, another parent may organize the treat or food. Whether you are planning the party by yourself or you have help, it is best to keep it simple and pick something that will let the kids put their unique spin on the craft, or activity.
Here are a few ideas to get your Thanksgiving ideas flowing.
Cute Decorate Your Own Turkey Twizzler Cupcakes- bring in iced cupcakes, twizzlers, and candy and let each child make their own turkey to gobble up!
Thanksgiving Word Search- entertain kids during a party with a holiday word search.
Thanksgiving Maze- let kids find their way through the turkey maze
Turkey Coloring Page by Kathy Barbro, an art teacher in CA- print this turkey outline, and let kids decorate their own turkey.
Write a Turkey Tale, let kids draw a picture and write a story about their favorite part of Thanksgiving. Use this blank story page or give kids construction paper and let them draw on the front and write on the inside of the paper (fold in half).
Thanksgiving Pilgrim Hat, let kids make a Thanksgiving Pilgrim Hat for a school party or the day of Thanksgiving while at home.
Turkey Puppet, let kids make an easy turkey puppet out of colored construction paper and brown paper lunch bags.
Fall Leaves Drawing by Kathy Barbro at Art Projects for Kids
Hands and Feet Thanksgiving Turkey by Kaboose
Serve a mini-Thanksgiving feast, offer the kids a few easy versions of the food the pilgrims ate
Read a Thanksgiving or Harvest Story, bring in props to show while reading the story in an animated way. Kids love to hear a story that is truly performed and there are so many great Thanksgiving and turkey stories to choose from
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Kristin Fitch is a parenting expert, author, educator and mom of three beautiful boys. She is also the CEO and E ditor of Ziggity Zoom, LLC which hosts several crafting, parenting and activity sites including Mommie911.com, ZiggityZoom.com, and CuriousBaby.com, among others. Kristin writes articles and how-to videos for ZiggityZoom.com, as well as many other parenting related websites as she encourage parents to find ways to spark kids' imagination, creativity and to explore the world around them. Kristin can be found on Facebook and Twitter.
