Arts and Crafts

The best crafts that i have come up with for my 21 month old and my 3 year old have come from the website DLK paper crafts. (these crafts are all 100% FREE) http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/paper.htm All they take is a printer, paper, glue and sissors. I cut the projects out and they glue them to the paper. They love it -- and it's about where they are at as far as being able to do the crafts.

If you explore the site you can also find all sorts of inexpensive ABC - themed things to do as well.

When the kids get tired of these things stringing large beads make good crafts and it works their small motor skills. Paint is great, stamps and those Dora and Diego water-color books (they are like the ones we used as kids on steroids)

Hi Julie,

What kind of supplies did you pick up? I am a childrens designer and a part-time youth arts instructor in the famrington valley. I can pass some ideas along for some fun :)

O.

My daughter's first grade teacher recommends the magazine FamilyFun because of its wonderful crafts. I haven't finished the November issue yet, but ideas include a turkey candle holder, popcorn poppers (pull apart for surprise inside), a Thanksgiving Day clock, an apple tart to eat, a bird marionette, a falling leaf shirt, etc.

Some of the craft shops like A.C. Moore have kid craft events. During the week, the drop-in classes are for the preschool crowd.

I host www.mombasics.com and have a few craft ideas posted as well as a Fun for Kids pages with links to craft, coloring, and homework sites. I need to post more craft ideas!

Here are some good sites with TONS of ideas (most are organized by themes):

AtoZTeacherStuff.com
PerpetualPreschool.com
EnchantedLearning.com
KinderArt.com
ChildCareLand.com
EverythingPreschool.com
PreschoolPrintables.com

If you are looking for craft kits that include all the materials OrientalTrading.com has lots of themes- lots of good holiday gift ideas! You might also want to look into FunShine Express curriculum (infants-school age projects available) which provides a month's worth of themes, crafts, games, etc. If interested let me know- I have a $10 coupon code off your first order that you can use :)
Good Luck, and HAVE FUN!
~D.~

How about hand painted turkeys?

You can have your 3 year old glue on feathers or other things to decorate them.

Even your one year old would enjoy playing with the paint!

Messy- but fun!

The placemat idea is a good one - you can also use fallen leaves in interesting colors, and then cover with the clear contact paper - be careful though because the leaves and background paper can "jump" when the contact paper gets close. I think it's due to static electricity. But the kids can have fun collecting leaves in different colors, the 3 year old can count the number of "fingers" on the leaves, etc. My grandchildren also like to paint those unfinished wood figures you can buy at AC Moore or Michaels, or sometimes at places like JoAnn Fabrics. No accuracy is required! You can always display them for a year, then repaint them a neutral color and do it again next year. Some kids like to paint mini pumpkins and then you can display them in a cornucopia or other centerpiece. You could also stencil the letters for "Happy Thanksgiving" onto heavy paper, let the kids fingerpaint them, and then cut out the letters to form a banner. You can connect them with strips of the fingerpainted paper you cut away - use those little fastener brads and you will have a garland of letters you can hang in a wide doorway or suspend under the fireplace mantle. You can do the same craft for other holidays, birthdays, father's day, etc.

This was super cute to do! I remember doing it with my three year old... it's making a turkey! Trace your child's foot in brown construction paper and that will serve as the turkey's body. Trace your child's hands in various colors (red, yellow , orange) and that serves as the turkeys wings. Draw on eyes, or use those wiggly eyes from craft stores. It comes out really cute!

good luck

There are 2 books we use all the time they have so many wonderful ideas for all kinds of activities,crafts,play indoor and out door useing many every day items that you would have in your own home for ages 1and half to 3 for toddlers and 3 to 6 for preschool but even our older children have enjoyed making the various item's!The Toddlers Busy book by Trish kuffer preschooler Busy book by same author they are by Meadow Brook Press distrubed by Simon and Schuster of New York take a look in to these maybe local library would have them.
C.

Julie,

The best and quickest resource that I've found is www.familyfun.go.com. They have lots of ideas for almost any occasion and any age. I can't remember the name of the book, but I have a small but fat book with a ton of good crafts specifically for toddlers. They also have recipes for different types of play doh, paper mache, etc. I think I bought it at Barnes and Noble. I wish you luck, and have fun!:)

The las three years we have made Thanksgiving placemats with my son (now age 4 1/2). My son, husband and I make our own and then we make extras for the company we expect. It isn't fancy but my son enjoys it. We simply trace our hands on construction paper. Turn the hand into a turkey with the fingers as the feathers. We write one thing we are thankful on each feather then write our name and the year on the paper. For our guests we leave the feathers blank but we do write their name on a placemat and the year. My son doesn't love coloring so he decorated the placemats with stickers and stamps. Finally we laminate (or use clear contact paper) the mats. We use them for the dinner after Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving is more formal and at my mother's house). We all go around and say what we are thankful for (ours are already on our placemat). For us it is a nice craft that also becomes an activity and a keepsake. My son also likes the foam crafts at Michael's. We have done ones for Halloween and Christmas but haven't looked for Thanksgiving themed ones.

Hi J., I have a licensed daycare and have kids that are 3, 2, 1, and a newborn, I found this terrific website -www.childcareland.com. She has a new craft everyday listed on her website, she has a picture too so you can see what it looks like, most materials are easy crayons, constuction paper, glue, tape and paint. there is a new project everyday and I have been having great success with my little ones doing these EASY projects. good luck!!!

I haven't checked but for Halloween we bought these foam pumpkins that had stickers and things to decorate it with maybe they have a turkey one. Also there is the classic trace your hand and make a turkey out of it. You could make a head band and glue feathers to it or make pilgram hats. you should check the ac moore website. They have ideas on there and tell you what skill level is needed. Have fun.

I use www.atozteacherstuff.com

thay have all sorts of lesson plans, activites and crafts for all holidays and a rainy day

Hi Julie,
I put a couple fall crafts on my blog and will be putting another easy one specifically for Thanksgiving in the next day or so. Here's the link: http://www.kjartworks.blogspot.com
Have fun creating special memories!

There are probably websites such as Martha Stewart that would have ideas.

What they do here at the elementary school is make paper turkeys.
Body: Get a small to medium size brown paper bag.
Stuff it with newspaper, or other scrap paper.
Fold down top, and staple it closed.
Legs: Take two longish strips of colored paper. Fold strips like fans or zs to give them a funny zig-zag shape. Attach turkey like feet at end or cut legs at bottom to look like turkey feet. Tape legs to bottom of bag.
Wings: Draw wings on colored paper, large eonugh to suit the size of the paper bag. Tape to sides of bag.
Head, neck, & wattle: Draw a shape sort of like a light bulb (large at top, thinner and longer on the bottom) for the head and neck on colored-paper (black or brown). Cut it out and attach to the top of the bag. Use what you would like for the eyes (colored-paper, googly eyes). Cut a diamond shape from colored-paper for the beak (yellow or orange). Fold at the middle, tape to face. Cut a longish, thinish piece of colored-paper (red) for the wattle. Attach it below the beak.
Tail: Cut tail feathers from colored-paper and attach to the back-side of the bag/turkey.

Use tape/glue/staples for attaching - whatever you deem best.

: ) Maureen

I get a kit called Smarty Crafts. It's a monthly arts & crafts kit based on kindergarten concepts and the Nov them is called "Giving Thanks". The crafts are super cute for Thanksgiving and are keepsakes. Plus, my 3.5 year old daughter now knows the letter T and some new vocab from the kit. Check it out www.smartycrafts.com

Hi Julie

This might be more for the Christmas season. But the craft store has those already cut for you wooden shapes. I think they are 25cents each. In all kinds of shapes, stars, trees, animals, flowers. I would get those for my kids, and washable paints, let them paint them, get other decorations for them, google eyes, or pipecleaners and let them go to town. In the end, you can either put a strip of magnet tape on them to make magnets, or my husband one year, drilled a small hole in the top and I strung some gold or red cording through them and made ornaments for the tree out of them.
Have fun...

I love Oriental Trading for crafts -- although many would be tough for a 3-yr old.

For Thanksgiving I like to make handprint turkeys -- trace the child's hands and then decorate to look like a turkey, very cute (thumb is head, fingers the legs).

If you search online "Thanksgiving craft" there are many many homeschool and preschool websites with great ideas.

My children always enjoyed making "hand turkeys" out of construction paper. Trace your child's hand on construction paper (I like to use yellow) and cut it out. Pre-cut feathers out of yellow, orange, and red construction paper. Have your child glue the feathers onto the back of the cut out hand so they show through between the "fingers". You can then cut out a beak and a "waddle" to glut onto the thumb which turns into the head of the turkey. My children like to glue the turkeys to popsicle sticks to turn them into puppets. Have fun!!

YOu can make paper turkeys and glue together, headcrowns with a feather, sponge paint leaves with pre cut sponges shaped like leaves, make pilgrims from construction cut outs and glue together, make playdough, make a collage of thanksgiving foods,etc. go to google and look up preschool art crafts and you can get many more ideas.

Julie two ideas I use are: Find pine cones in the yard. Spread peanut butter on them and roll them in bird seed. It is easy enough for even the 1 year old to do! The kids love it, they can then watch the birds feeding. I use fishing line to wrap arount the top of the pine cone and hang it to a low branch.

Next, gather some pretty leaves from the yard, take waxed paper, arrange the leaves on a square of the waxed paper, you can add some crayon shavings if you like for additional color. Put a top square of waxed paper wax sides together, Iron the waxed paper together with a hole punch put two holes in top and some yard for a hanger. These look really good in the window with the sun shining through.

Good luck!

one thing my kids were given once were hand-print "turkeys" made with those foam sheets in bright colors. Trace the child's hand and cut it out of the foam sheet. The thumb is the head, draw eyes on it, or use googly eyes, etc., and decorate the other fingers to look like the feathers. If I remember correctly, they had glued those craft feathers on the fingers. It was cute!

Try going to Micheals or even to Micheals website. They have good suggestions there.

Hi Julie... one fun and not so terribly messy thing I like to do make a holiday wreath using clear sticky paper (contact paper or self stick laminate) cut into a circle then use tissue paper (color of the holiday in season, orange/red/brown/yellow for thanksgiving, red/white/green for xmas) and let the kids rip it into small pieces and push it onto the paper. they have a great time with the ripping and sticking and you get a fun decoration to hang up without much mess!
Have fun!

Go to oriental trading company on line
www.orientaltradingcompany.com
and check out their Thanksgiving crafts...you can purchase or just use their ideas!

I just found this adorable Thanksgiving countdown that would be perfect for a 3-year-old:

http://www.makeandtakes.com/counting-down-to-turkey-time

I also just started a blog where I'm working on posting crafts for this age group - just getting started but there should be more up there soon:

http://thriftycraftmama.blogspot.com/

Hi Julie,

If you're looking for a book, Rosie O'Donnell has a pretty new one out called "Crafty U" for crafting with your kids. She did some cute things from it on TV recently (Rachael Ray, maybe?). Anyway, it looks great and is at the top of my holiday list.

Trace your child's hand onto brown paper [I use a paper bag] cut out other pieces of colored paper finger shaped and glue on and have them make turkeys. Not only do you have a craft project, but also a memory of how big their hands are at this age to compare to year after year. have fun.A.