Art is a delightful way to engage young minds and fingers during moments that can potentially cause restlessness, such as a chilly fall day or the long wait for Thanksgiving dinner. If you aren't used to organizing projects, there are plenty of step-by-step tutorials with suggested lists of materials on the internet. To help you get started, here are a few easy Thanksgiving crafts to do with your grandchildren this season.
This DIY decoration lets you and your grandchildren greet holiday guests with a wheel of colorful corn cobs. The appearance of corn kernels is created by using bubble wrap and multiple colors of paint, and the two shades of green construction paper add contrast that helps the individual cobs stand out in the group.
While many crafts include using various items to create leaf shapes, this simple painting puts a fun twist on the idea by having you arrange leaves on a piece of paper and color over them. Once the kids are done applying paint, the leaves are removed, and the resulting spaces show the interesting shapes of fall.
Finger painting is a fun way to complete art projects for very young children that still struggle to hold brushes and create detailed pictures. And using little hands to create turkey shapes is a classic way to celebrate the holiday. The author of this blog uses this classic idea to create special greeting cards to mail to family members.
Another fun turkey-themed project involves using children's hands and feet to create the iconic shape. In addition to providing instant templates for the turkey's body, these traced prints make a meaningful keepsake that lets adults mark the size of each participant and the date for future comparison.
Popsicle sticks, glue, cardboard, paper and a few markers are all the supplies required to make these rustic pilgrim and scarecrow faces, but kids could customize them further with buttons or beads for eyes and embellishments on the hats.
Autumn-colored pony beads and pipe cleaners form the basis for this ear of corn. And the repetitious movement needed to assemble the piece provides the bonus of excellent motor skill and hand-eye coordination practice for young children.
A quick internet search will pull up multiple results for shaving cream leaf art, along with detailed tutorials explaining how to create the most vivid marbled effects. This crafter recommends poster paint instead of food coloring and has instructions in both written and video form for these somewhat messy but exciting paintings.
Kids love to wear their creations just as much as they enjoy making them, and these charming costume pieces can be used in imaginative stories and dress-up games. The leaf masks, wristbands and crowns are easy to fashion out of brown paper bags, and the use of tape instead of glue lets kids start playing with them immediately.
This detailed tutorial shows you how to use glue and balloons to shape yarn into clever pumpkin shapes. Because the actual construction can be a little messy, the author suggests stirring the strands in the glue with a plastic fork and using its tines to remove excess.
