Thanksgiving Crafts For Preschoolers

Thanksgiving Crafts For Preschoolers

Thanksgiving is a wonderful time for family, gratitude, and creating lasting memories. As the air gets crisp and thoughts turn to turkey and pie, it’s the perfect opportunity to engage your little ones in some creative fun. Crafting is more than just a way to pass the time. It helps develop fine motor skills, encourages self-expression, and gives you a chance to connect with your child.

Just Children Child Care Centers provides a guide filled with simple and engaging Thanksgiving craft ideas designed for preschoolers. You don’t need to be an artist or have a huge supply of materials. Most of these projects use common household items, making them accessible and easy to set up. From classic handprint turkeys to colorful leaf creations, let’s explore some fun activities that your family can enjoy together.

Getting Started: Your Preschool Crafting Toolkit

Before you dive in, it helps to have a few basic supplies on hand. Our child care programs are stocked with all types of fun preschool crafts. A well-stocked craft box makes spontaneous creativity easy. Here’s a list of essentials for most fall preschool crafts:

• Construction paper
• Child-safe scissors
• Non-toxic glue sticks and liquid glue
• Washable paint
• Crayons, markers, and colored pencils
• Googly eyes
• Paper plates
• Empty toilet paper or paper towel rolls
• Cotton balls

Classic Turkey Crafts With a Twist

The turkey is the undeniable star of Thanksgiving, and it makes for an adorable craft subject. These ideas are perfect for little hands and are some of the most beloved crafts for toddlers and preschoolers.

The Timeless Handprint Turkey

This craft is a rite of passage for a reason. It captures a moment in time by preserving the size of your child’s handprint, making it a cherished keepsake. What You’ll Need:

• Brown, red, orange, and yellow construction paper or washable paint
• A piece of white or light-colored paper for the background
• Googly eyes
• Glue
• A marker

Create the Body: Trace your child’s hand on a piece of brown construction paper and cut it out. Alternatively, you can paint your child’s palm and thumb brown and their other four fingers in different fall colors.

Stamp the Handprint: Press their painted hand firmly onto the background paper. The brown thumb becomes the turkey’s head and neck, and the colorful fingers become the feathers. If using the cut-out method, glue the handprint onto the paper.

Add Details: Once the paint is dry (if used), glue on a googly eye. Use a marker to draw a small beak (a small orange triangle) and a wattle (a red squiggly line).

Finishing Touches: Help your child write their name and the year on the paper to create a sweet memento.

Paper Plate Turkey Wreath

This craft combines painting, cutting, and gluing, making it a fantastic activity for developing multiple skills. What You’ll Need:

• A paper plate
• Brown paint
• Construction paper in various fall colors
• Scissors
• Glue
• Googly eyes
• Instructions:

Prepare the Plate: Cut out the center of the paper plate, leaving the outer rim to form the wreath base. Have your child paint the entire rim brown. Set it aside to dry.

Make the Feathers: While the paint dries, cut out leaf shapes or simple feather shapes from the colored construction paper. This is great cutting practice for preschoolers who are comfortable with scissors. For younger toddlers, you can pre-cut the shapes.

Assemble the Wreath: Once the plate is dry, help your child glue the paper “feathers” around the back of the rim, fanning them out like a turkey’s tail.

Create the Turkey Head: Cut a small circle or figure-eight shape from brown paper for the head. Glue on googly eyes and draw a beak and wattle. Attach the head to the bottom of the wreath.

Display Your Work: Punch a hole at the top and loop a ribbon through it to hang your turkey wreath on a door or wall.

Nature-Inspired Fall Preschool Crafts

Bring the beauty of the autumn outdoors inside with these simple and creative projects. A walk around the yard to collect materials can be part of the fun.

Leaf Rubbing Collage

This classic art project reveals the magic of nature’s patterns and is fascinating for young children. What You’ll Need:

• A variety of fallen leaves in different shapes and sizes (make sure they aren’t too dry or crumbly)
• White or light-colored paper
• Crayons with the paper peeled off

Collect Your Leaves: Go on a nature walk with your child to find interesting leaves. Talk about their different shapes, colors, and textures.

Set Up: Place a single leaf on a flat surface. Lay a piece of paper over the top of it.

Rub the Crayon: Hold the paper steady and have your child rub the side of a crayon over the area where the leaf is. The texture and outline of the leaf will magically appear on the paper.

Create a Collage: Repeat the process with different leaves and colors, overlapping them to create a beautiful fall collage. This is a simple yet captivating activity, making it one of the best crafts for toddlers.

Pinecone Turkeys

Pinecones have a wonderful texture and shape that naturally lend themselves to creating cute little critters. What You’ll Need:

• Pinecones
• Craft feathers in fall colors (or use construction paper cut-outs)
• Googly eyes
• Small pieces of orange and red felt or foam paper
• Hot glue gun (for adult use) or strong craft glue

Prepare the Pinecone: Make sure your pinecones are clean and dry. Set one upright, with the wider end at the top.

Add the Feathers: Help your child select colorful craft feathers. Use glue to stick them into the back of the pinecone, fanning them out to look like a turkey’s tail.

Make the Face: Glue two googly eyes onto the front of the pinecone. Cut a tiny triangle from the orange felt for the beak and a small squiggly shape from the red felt for the wattle. Glue these just below the eyes.

Let it Dry: Set your pinecone turkeys aside to dry completely. They make adorable decorations for the Thanksgiving table or mantelpiece.

Upcycled and Sensory Crafts

Turn everyday household items into creative masterpieces. These crafts focus on sensory exploration and recycling.

Toilet Paper Roll Scarecrow

Don’t toss those empty toilet paper rolls! They are the perfect base for creating a whole cast of Thanksgiving characters. What You’ll Need:

• An empty toilet paper roll
• Construction paper or paint
• Scraps of fabric, yarn, or straw
• Markers
• Glue
• Buttons (optional)

Create the Body: Have your child paint the toilet paper roll or cover it with a piece of construction paper to make the scarecrow’s shirt.

Add a Hat and Hair: Cut a circle from construction paper for a hat brim and a smaller tube shape for the top. Glue them together to make a hat. Glue strands of yarn or straw under the hat for hair.

Draw the Face: Use markers to draw a friendly scarecrow face on the roll.

Decorate: Glue on small fabric patches or buttons to the scarecrow’s shirt. You can even wrap a piece of twine around the “waist” for a belt.

Thankful Pumpkin

This activity combines crafting with a lesson in gratitude, which is the heart of Thanksgiving. What You’ll Need:

• A small pumpkin (real or craft)
• Markers or paint pens
• Your family

Set the Stage: Place the pumpkin in a central location, like the kitchen counter or living room table, a week or two before Thanksgiving.

Start a Tradition: Each day, encourage every family member to write or draw one thing they are thankful for on the pumpkin. Preschoolers can dictate their answers for you to write, or they can draw a simple picture of what they’re grateful for (like the family dog or their favorite toy).

Watch it Fill Up: As Thanksgiving approaches, the pumpkin will become covered in messages and drawings of gratitude.

Share on Thanksgiving: Use the pumpkin as a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving dinner and take turns reading what everyone wrote. It’s a powerful visual reminder of all the good things in your lives.

Making Craft Time a Success

The goal of crafting with your preschooler is to have fun and connect. It’s about the process, not the perfect product. Here are a few tips to keep things joyful:

• Embrace the Mess: Put down a tablecloth or old newspaper and dress your child in clothes that can get dirty. This allows them to explore freely without you worrying about spills.
• Let Them Lead: Offer guidance, but let your child make creative choices. If they want to make a blue turkey, that’s fantastic.
• Know When to Stop: Preschoolers have short attention spans. Keep craft sessions short and sweet, and don’t push it if they lose interest. You can always come back to it later.

Contact Us Today

Just Children Childcare Centers is excited to show you our world of education and excitement. We invite you to take a tour of our centers or inquire more about us. We aim to help your child learn through fun. For more information or to schedule a visit, please contact us today.