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3 Thanksgiving Smarts & Crafts
- Gabrielle Fischer Posted On Nov 9, 2017
Thanksgiving offers a cornucopia of craft ideas and crafts make the greatest centerpieces, so what are you waiting for? Give our Thanksgiving Smarts & Crafts ideas a go and be sure to share the educational tidbits we’ve provided as you cut and paste with your kiddos. Now ready, set, craft!
Coffee Cup Mayflower
Save your next Starbucks cup (and holder) for this easy-to-make rendition of the Mayflower, the ship that carried 102 pilgrims from Plymouth, England, to Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the year 1620.
1. Remove the lid from the cup and cut the top half of the cup away.
2. Place the cup into the cup holder and squeeze the ends a bit to make a “ship shape”. Note – if there’s a logo on your cupholder, you may need to cut the cup holder, flip it “inside out” and tape it back up.
3. Cut two medium sized rectangles from white construction paper and two more, smaller, rectangles.
4. Using your scissors, slide two small slits at the top and bottom of the wider edges of all four rectangles and insert a wooden coffee stirrer through one large and one small rectangle. Repeat with the other two. Then tape the bottom of the stirrers to the front and back of your cup “boat”, inside the cup holder. These will be your sails.
Gratitude Garland
Paper chains are perfect for preschoolers and this sweet garland is a great way to remind everyone to be thankful this Thanksgiving! We’re guessing the pilgrims were pretty grateful for the Native Americans that taught them how to plant corn and other crops that helped them survive their first year in America.
1. Help your kiddo cut several sheets of orange, red, yellow, and brown construction paper into 4 vertical strips each. (Cutting is great fine motor skill practice!)
2. Ask your kids to name some of the things they’re most grateful for – you may need to get the ball rolling by suggesting things like yummy school lunches, friends to play with, books to read, mommies who love them, etc. Then write the responses on the paper strips using a marker. (Or, if your kids are practicing letters and learning to write, have them write the words themselves.)
3. Loop the first strip and staple the ends. Loop the next strip through the first and staple. Repeat until your chain is complete.
4. Hang in a prominent place to remember all the things you and your family have to be grateful for!
Tin Can Turkey
Although it’s more likely that the pilgrims ate duck, goose, and venison at the first Thanksgiving dinner, turkey (or tofurkey) is a modern Thanksgiving mainstay. Celebrate this beautiful bird with your very own, hand-crafted centerpiece!
1. Choose an unopened soup can to sacrifice for your project (you can put it back in the pantry in December). Wrap a piece of brown construction paper around it and mark the length and height with a pencil, then let your preschooler cut it to size. Tape or glue it tight around the can.
2. Place the can end down on a sheet of brown construction paper and have your preschooler trace and cut the circle; have your preschooler glue it to the closed end of the can. Repeat so both ends of the can are covered.
3. Cut a small, teardrop-shaped head; neck; small triangular beak; and turkey feet, then let your preschooler apply glue and place them onto your bird, along with some silly, googly eyes.
4. Next, trace a feather shape onto a sheet of cardboard or thick paper (the cover of your construction paper pack will do the trick). Cut it out and encourage your kiddo to trace it, several times teach, onto orange, red, green, and yellow sheets of construction paper. Cut these out, then cut a few triangular notches into each “feather” to make it look authentic.
5. Cover the bird’s bottom with school glue, then show your little one how to layer and spread the feathers. It’s easiest if one person holds the can, turkey face facing down, and the other presses the feathers onto the bottom. Continue gluing and layering until your bird’s plumage is perfect.
Crafting with your kids isn’t just fun – it’s educational and developmentally beneficial, too. Take advantage of your time together to talk to each other and allow your child to do as much of each project as possible, from tracing and cutting to gluing and coloring. Enjoy!
DIY Fall Sensory Bin!
Fall is here! Which means I get to put together one of my most favorite sensory bins of the year. Who can resist the smell of apple cinnamon and pine cones mixed with the texture of corn kernels, right!?
Every year I try to add in components that align with the developmental stage my daughter is in. Being almost 3, she is refining her fine and visual motor skills every day, so we added in lots of fine motor challenges and visual perceptual options this year. Toddlers also seek independence in everything they do, so sensory bins are always a great task to get them involved when putting it together.
Sensory Bin Materials
First, we gathered all of our goodies. For this bin, we are using corn kernels, play apples, pine cones, flat marbles, and play leaves as our main “ingredients”. You can control the amount of scent you include in your bin by sprinkling apple pie spice, or adding cinnamon sticks. My daughter does not have any aversions to scent, so we went with pre-scented apples and pine cones (you can often find these in the fall section of your local craft store!).
Next, I had her scoop and pour the corn kernels into her bin, and add in all of the goodies. I let her play for a while and explore the different scents and textures. She loves to explore using kitchen utensils (spoons, bowls, funnels, cups, etc) – she made our whole family some apple soup with a side of leaves and pine cones for dinner! All of this is working on their imagination skills which is fantastic for this age.
Then, the fun begins for me! Here are some fun challenges I incorporated into our purposeful play!
Fine Motor
Corn kernels are awesome because when a toddler plays with it, they are naturally practicing their pincer skills just picking them up and moving them around! I also love to incorporate various tongs, tweezers, and clothespins for her to use while she picks up apples or “catches” leaves.
Visual Motor
Sorting tasks are always a big hit. I had her sort out red apples, green apples, yellow leaves, and green leaves. You can also work on patterning or visual model copying. For my daughter, I lined up a couple objects (red apple, green leaf, pine cone) and had her find the matching objects in the bin and line them up in the same order.
Stereognosis
This is a high-level perceptual skill that I love to throw in when planning activities. Stereognosis is the ability to perceive an object from touch – sensory bins are perfect for this because you can hide a pine cone underneath the corn kernels, have them dig in, and see if they can find the pine cone only by touch. I can’t tell you how intrinsically motivating and fun this is for them, all while working on some amazing developmental skills.
The thing I really love about sensory bins is that they are easily adaptable to any age group. If your little one is younger, try adding the corn kernels to a clear bottle with some leaves and pom poms and have them roll it all around. Watch them in awe as they see the goodies move all around inside the bottle and hear the sounds of the kernels as they slide!
Save it for later!
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5 Spooktacular Halloween Learning Activities from the Busbys
Adam and I are always looking for activities to do with the girls, and there’s plenty of learning and fun to be had this Halloween. It can be as simple as counting and sorting Halloween candy, drawing a spooky picture, or making a paper plate spider web. The learning is always there – you just have to look for it!
1. Pumpkin Coloring Contest
Get out the crayons, print out this pumpkin picture, and watch your little artist’s imagination come to life! Points for the silliest, spookiest, and most creative pumpkins.
2. Paper Plate Spiderwebs
Fall trees aren’t just full of leaves – they’re also full of spiders! Garden spiders are most active in the fall so you’re likely to see more of their elaborate, beautiful webs in the trees in autumn, too. Join the fun and spin your own spider webs out of a paper plate!
- Cut the center out of a paper plate.
- Let your kids color the outer edge of the plate with beautiful fall colors like red, orange, and yellow.
- Using a single hole puncher, punch 12-14 holes around the edge of the hole.
- Tape one end of a length of yarn to the back of the paper plate and wrap tape tightly around the other to form a ‘needle’.
- Demonstrate how to weave the yarn back and forth through the holes to create the web, then hand the plate over to your child.
- Once, the web is spun, remove the pin from the end of the yarn and tape that end to the back of the plate, too.
Add a pipe cleaner spider for the perfect fall finishing touch – cut four black pipe cleaners in half and twist to create an eight-legged creepy crawly!
3. Frankenstein Fun
Start with a blank sheet of paper, then guide your kids, step by step, to draw Frankenstein’s head. Instructions are below:
- Draw a large rectangle, short sides up and down, long sides on the sides, to form the head.
- Add a rectangular ear on either side of the head.
- Add a zig zag line just below the top of the head to make hair.
- Draw two parallel lines coming out of the bottom of the head to form the neck.
- Add the start of another rectangle beneath the neck to form the top of the body.
- Draw two circles for eyes and two half circles inside the circles to form pupils.
- Add rectangular eyebrows at an angle over the eyes.
- Add a rectangular mouth.
- Using the bottom of the mouth as the base, draw three triangles, then connect the pointed tops of the triangles to the top of the mouth’s rectangle to form teeth.
- Shape a nose between the eyes and the mouth
- Once the outline of Frankenstein is complete, kids can go crazy with details – add bolts, scars, etc. Outline the creation in Sharpie, and color him in with crayons, colored pencils, markers, even watercolor paints. You’ll be surprised how differently each of your children’s drawings are!
4. Spooky STEM Sculptures
Put all that Halloween candy to good use, with STEM sculptures! Use candy pumpkins and toothpicks to create STEM structures designed to introduce early math and science principles like gravity, balance, angles, and more. Younger kids can try building a simple tower with a three-pumpkin base supporting a single, floating pumpkin. Challenge older kids to create a taller tower, pyramid, spiral, or spider web!
5. Skeleton Puzzle
This double sided skeleton puzzle not only makes a great Halloween activity, it’s also a great way to teach your kids about the name of bones! It also makes a great front door decoration to help greet your trick or treaters.
Happy Halloween!
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