Thanksgiving Activities

Thanksgiving is just around the corner (can you believe it?!) and you may be hoping to do a few fun activities or crafts with your students or children. Perhaps you’re looking for something to keep the little ones busy on Thanksgiving Day while you finish preparing your meal, or you’re a teacher or volunteer that’s looking for a fun classroom or after-school activity.

Regardless of the situation, here are a couple of fun ideas!

Magazine Turkey

This craft is simple enough, and requires just a few old magazines (that you don’t mind getting cut up!), some construction paper, glue, and some scissors. Definitely look into using some safety scissors for younger children!

1. To start, have the kids pick out their favorite color of construction paper. Autumnal colors (red, orange, brown, yellow, dark green) will keep with the Thanksgiving theme, but we’re sure this crafty turkey will look just as great with a hot pink or electric blue background!
2. Next, pass around the magazines and have the children cut out large letters that spell out ROAST TURKEY, and entire words (in any size) that designate parts of the Thanksgiving meal (such as salad, yams, potatoes, etc.).
3. Arrange the letters for ROAST TURKEY in a slightly oval shape to form the turkey’s “body.”
4. Arrange the words around the back end of the oval in a spikey pattern to form a tail.
5. Once everything is arranged and looks great (or adorable), glue the letters and words into place.
6. Complete the turkey by drawing on his head, neck, legs, and feet!

Pinecone Turkey

If you’re looking for a craft that may also allow the kids to burn off some energy outside, this one is perfect! You’ll need some pinecones, feathers, googly eyes, orange felt, and glue.

1. Send the little ones on a [supervised!] hunt to find some pinecones.
2. Once they’ve returned with their pinecones, have them select the one they’d like to start with and brush off any dirt and other remnants of the outside. The more dirt you can get off of it, the better the glue will stick.
3. Next, have them select some feathers to make a tail. Depending on the size of their pinecone, 5 or 6 feathers should do the trick. Again, autumnal colors will stick with the Thanksgiving theme, but no one would ever tell a turkey with a purple tail that they weren’t beautiful!
4. Arrange the feathers in a fan shape and glue them onto the pinecone turkey’s “backside.” To find the appropriate “backside,” lay the pinecone on its side – either the widest end or the narrowest end can be the tail end, and the other will be for the face. It may be easier, logistically, for the widest end to operate as the face.
5. Hold the eyes in place for 10 seconds each to help the glue adhere.
6. It’s time for the eyes! Give each child two googly eyes per pinecone turkey, and have them glue them onto the opposite end.
7. Cut out some very small triangles from the felt (one for each turkey!), and glue it – point-y toward the floor – just beneath the eyes of the turkey.
8. If you’d like to be extra festive, you could apply some glue and glitter to the body of the turkey!

If you’re planning these crafts as part of a classroom activity or after-school program for students, consider asking parents to pitch in! Use Pay4SchoolStuff.com to take monetary donations from parents to purchase supplies, or to have them sign-up for volunteer shifts to help the children with their crafts. And if these crafts are part of a classroom Thanksgiving celebration you can use Pay4SchoolStuff.com to keep track of the goodies and supplies parents may have volunteered to supply.

For more information on how to get P4SS to work for your organization, email us at [email protected] or call (877) 397-2937 to request a demo.

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