What I'm Thankful For: Crafts for Thanksgiving

4 November 2010 Author: Kelly Keller

Thanksgiving presents the perfect opportunity to encourage children to reflect on being thankful. This time of reflection can be a lot of fun when expressing gratitude through fun crafts for Thanksgiving.

Preschool Children:
Help preschool children cut pictures and words of what they are thankful for from old magazines.  These magazine clippings can be toys, places, or even foods.



When focusing on foods, parents or teachers can craft an oven mitt or pan shaped folder on which to paste the magazine clippings.  It may also be fun to suggest they feature photos of what their ideal Thanksgiving menu would include.  Children may pick traditional dishes like mashed potatoes and turkey for their menu or silly things like ice-cream and hot dogs.

Young School Children:  
Incorporate the season’s favorite character, a turkey, into a craft for young school aged children.  Help them write what they are thankful for on Mr. Turkey’s feathers.  Add this turkey to a poster, a crown or even a necklace.  Or create a fun and functional centerpiece by crafting a turkey tin that holds each dinner guest's list of what they are thankful for.



Older School Children and Tweens:  
Photo crafts like scrapbooking or picture frames are fun for older school children to create.  Creating small journals that can be used all year is also fun for this age group.



Children of all ages can make crafts, recipes or even create songs about being thankful.  They can share there creations with family, friends or community organizations.  Through this time spent creating and sharing crafts for Thanksgiving they can develop one of the most important qualities - an attitude of gratitude.