11 Simple Thanksgiving Kid Crafts (That Are Also Extremely Cute)

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.

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.

Transform a bunch of clothespins into a fun way for your kids to mark down what they're grateful for.

Make it: Paint your clothespins, and once dry, attach them around a wire wreath frame. Cut a heart out of thick cardstock and attach to the center of your wreath. Write, "I'm thankful for..." on the heart, and then have your kids customize each clothespin with a different moment of gratitude.

High-fives for all the awesome things your kids are grateful for!

Make it: Start by covering a bulletin board with white paper to make your canvas. Then, trace your children's hands on sheets of red, orange, green and yellow construction paper. Once you've traced and cut out handprints, have your kids write what they are thankful for. Cut a tree from brown paper (you can use your kids hand and forearm for a template), and glue on all your "leaves."

Be sure to grab some pics of everyone in the family modeling this petite topper.

Make it: Print our template here. Cut it out, then trace the hat and brim onto black card stock and the band onto brown card stock. Cut the buckle from gold card stock. Fold in the hat's tabs and roll it into a tube shape. Use a glue stick to secure the side tabs and to attach the brim, hatband, and buckle. With a glue gun, adhere the hat to a black headband. Allow the glue to dry completely before wearing the hat.

Ask each child to write what she's thankful for on a paper feather, then stick it into this cute turkey centerpiece.

Make it: Cut a 1-inch sliver off the bottom of a 9-inch polystyrene ball. Wrap sphere neatly in thick dark-brown yarn, covering surface completely; knot on bottom. Make a 4-inch ball from light-brown yarn and attach to body with a wooden craft stick. Create simple facial features using felt: white circles (approximately the size of a quarter, with 1/8-inch pom-poms for pupils) for eyes, yellow triangles for the beak, and long red felt teardrops as the wattle. Cut feather shapes from colored craft paper and bend in half lengthwise to create seam. Glue wooden craft stick to the bottom third of the feather and insert in a fan shape on turkey body.

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.
 

What you'll need: One 15-x-9-inch piece of foam core, pencil, Mod Podge, foam brush, 6 ounces quinoa or similar grain, 1/4 cup each assorted dried beans, large tray

Make it: Use a pencil to write "Gobble Gobble" (or another holiday message) onto foam core. Apply a layer of Mod Podge onto foam core. Working over a large tray, sprinkle quinoa over surface; let dry. (Try not to cover the letters too heavily.) Then, glue on beans to spell out your message; let dry. Glue more beans around the edges of foam to create a border; let dry. If you'd like to hang the sign, glue a large loop of ribbon or raffia onto the back.

What you'll need: Solid-color adult- and child-size socks, scissors, pinking shears, dried beans, twist ties, stiffened or regular felt in assorted colors, one large and two tiny pom-poms for each turkey, fabric glue

Make it: Cut off the top of each sock. Leave about 6 inches to the toe for each adult sock and 5 inches to the toe for each child's sock. Fill a sock with beans until it is two-thirds full. Gather the sock's opening, and close with a twist tie. Pull sock edges down and over exposed twist tie; glue to secure. Use pinking shears to cut out 6 turkey "feathers" from felt and glue over this area; this will be the back of the turkey. Cut out a felt wattle and beak; glue them to the front of a large pom-pom. Glue on two tiny pom-poms for eyes. When dry, glue head to the front of the turkey.

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.

Print our color template, cut out, and glue the beak to a stick for a silly photo op.

Get your kids' creative juices flowing while spending quality time together with our easy, crafty activities that are all about giving thanks and showing gratitude.