Archive for the ‘Thanksgiving’ Category

Family Photo Quilt

This thanksgiving craft is a favorite of mine. We made it last year and I plan to make one when my camera is full of pictures of family and friends we only see once a year. So take a bunch of pictures today, and sit down after hitting the sales Friday and make something priceless!  Have a wonderful holiday filled with family , friends and food! Click on the picture above for the full instructions for the craft.

Sent In By You!

This game wa ent in my Aimee at The Mommy Trade. I think it’s a perfect fit for No Time For Flash Card readers because a variety of ages can have fun with it. Thanks Aimee for  such a cute idea!

The way this game work is that together with your child you make this adorable pine cone turkey… but don’t hot glue the feathers in.

See this turkey has a habit of loosing his feathers and it’s up to your kids to find them. It’s a feather hunt game!  Isn’t that a brilliant idea? I love it. Kids will love it for sure and you can use this craft to teach textures, colors and counting too.

For the full  craft instructions check out The Mommy Trade

Books

10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnson was a classroom favorite, it’s about as silly as a book gets and the kids had no clue they were actually learning about subtraction while listening to the crazy rhymes. This won’t explain the pilgrims , or talk about the Mayflower, but it will make your kids laugh! Very cute!

Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey was such a treat to read. It’s a reworking of the classic Christmas poem, with a Thanksgiving twist.  A bus full of kids head off to the turkey farm the day before Thanksgiving and are immediately enamored with the birds. When a child asks the farmer what the axe by the door is for… well let’s just say the truth is told and the kids fall apart. They don’t stay down for long though, the kids outsmart the farmer and their teacher to save the turkeys from the axe. Somehow the author finds a way to make the possible slaughter of these happy friendly, named turkey’s funny. My son was giggling while I was kinda nervous that they’d get the axe! Great rhymes throughout this hilarious book!

No Cowboys , Just Indians!

On Thursdays we go to music class and I don’t want to have to bathe my son before so I try to stick to mess free activities if we do art before heading off to sing!  I have been saving these feathers for weeks, waiting to make this super simple Native American headdress craft. You can use glue but when we make something that a child can wear and use for pretend play, the faster it’s ready to play with the better.

1. Gather your material. You will need a piece of construction paper, double stick tape, feathers, a hole punch, some ribbon, crayons and scissors.
2. Cut your construction paper into a strip.
3. Have your child color this with crayons.  We made those crayons… but you’ll have to wait until next week to see how and what we used ! 
4. Fold the strip and punch holes on either end.
5. Add tape to the inside. I added a lot of tape. My little independent soul wanted to add the tape himself, tried to add the feathers at the same time too and got frustrated .  He took a “breather” while I added more on either side of the paper and he was ready to come back.
6. Add your feathers.
7. Press your paper together.
8. Add the ribbons to either side.
9. Tie it on your kiddo and have fun!

Marshmallow Corn !

I was looking for a good place to hide Halloween candy and found marshmallows I hid months ago. They were hard and dry and perfect for a craft! If you don’t hide sugary treats from yourself in your kitchen just leave the marshmallows out over night to get stale.  They need to be stale so that your child can color them, without marshmallow bits getting on your markers, or being too squishy to color. Have fun with this, my son thought it was hilarious that he could color the marshmallows and asked at dinner if he could color his fish sticks. Thankfully the markers were put away.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a handful of stale mini marshmallows, yellow and brown construction paper, red, brown , yellow and orange markers , glue and scissors.
2. Start by coloring one end ( or more) of the marshmallows with various colors.
3. Keep going!
4. While they color the marshmallows draw an ear of corn on the yellow paper and husk on the brown.
5. Add glue to the corn.
6. Add the marshmallows.
7. Color the husk if you want.
8. Cut the husk out.
9. Glue it on the top- you can wait until everything is dry to glue it on. I was eager to post this so I fast forwarded a bit. 
10. Let dry and cut out .

Books

This First Thanksgiving Day: A Counting Story by Laura Krauss Melmed is a stunning gem of a book. I can’t believe I haven’t read it before, normally great books like this go through teaching circles like wildfire. The book has so many layers it will keep toddlers and preschoolers alike busy and engaged. The text explains the first Thanksgiving while counting 1-10 in rhyming poetry and the illustrations by Mark Buehner have hidden treasures, see if you can find them! After I return this to the library, I will be buying it for sure!

Twas The Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey was such a treat to read. It’s a reworking of the classic Christmas poem, with a Thanksgiving twist.  A bus full of kids head off to the turkey farm the day before Thanksgiving and are immediately enamored with the birds. When a child asks the farmer what the axe by the door is for… well let’s just say the truth is told and the kids fall apart. They don’t stay down for long though, the kids outsmart the farmer and their teacher to save the turkeys from the axe. Somehow the author finds a way to make the possible slaughter of these happy friendly, named turkey’s funny. My son was giggling while I was kinda nervous that they’d get the axe! Great rhymes throughout this hilarious book!

Thanksgiving Treat by Catherine Stock is a really heart warming book that will take you back to family gatherings of your childhood. The story follows the Thanksgiving day preparations of an extended family and one little boy who just wants to help. He goes from one job to the next where he is always told he is too little, or it’s too dangerous for him to do, and he should go somewhere else. Finally his Grandpa steps in with a very important job and the sad little boy is given new hope to be helpful. I remember being too little, and I know that from time to time my son is told he is too little too, this book is a kind reminder of finding ways to make even our littlest family members feel important and included. My son really liked it as well, while reading it today he stopped me and listed some of the things he is still too little to do, and the things that he has recently been able to do independently. Great book to sit down and talk about with your child.

Thankful Box

Yesterday was Thanksgiving in Canada and although we didn’t celebrate with a big turkey dinner we did make this thanksgiving craft, took time to think of things we are thankful for and share them at dinner.  At the dinner table  last night each family member wrote what they were thankful for , and added it to the box.  We didn’t keep ours a secret but you could. Our plan is to fill the box up over the next week and read it over dinner on Sunday to celebrate all we are thankful for.

1. Gather your materials. You will need a cardboard craft box ( a show box covered with paper would be great too), some markers ( one permanent), glitter, scissors and plain paper.
2. Cut a slot in the lid.
3. Write the words ” I am thankful for…”  in permanent marker on the lid.
4. Have your little artists decorate the box with crayons or markers, you could use paint too, we didn’t because we wanted to use it shortly after but if you have the time to wait for it to dry, go for it!
5. Don’t forget the lid!
6. Grab the glitter. I think glitter makes anything a little more special than it was without it , and a box like this deserves some glitter… or a lot. We only added it to the lid because I didn’t want it interfering with my son being able to open and close the box.
7. Let dry.
8. While the glitter is drying write out a few things  you are thankful for. These were my son’s – I didn’t coach him one bit, I admit I thought he’d say he was thankful for Hondas before anything but he mentioned his parents and great friends . I would encourage never saying ” No” to any suggestion, model the things you are trying to get your children to be thankful for but let them come up with their own. You can’t force this- but you can lead by example.
9. We folded our papers and popped them in the “dry enough” box.
10. We read these notes out at dinner and added more, which was when we decided to write more each dinner for a week then read the whole lot on Sunday.

Books

Thanksgiving in Canada is similar to the holiday in the United States, although we don’t have pilgrims, don’t watch football all day , and don’t line up for sales the next day either!  Our celebration is a celebration of the harvest, yes we eat turkey and cranberry sauce and each family has their own traditions. These books work for Thanksgiving in both countries, something that is useful for the many families like mine that is both Canadian and American!Also I couldn’t resist adding my favorite book about home, if you aren’t familiar with Canada I urge you to find this book and flip though, it’s a great cheat sheet or introduction to Canada!

Thanksgiving is For Giving Thanks by Margaret Sutherland is book that explains what Thanksgiving is, and gives lots of examples of things to be thankful for. I like this book although I could go without the page where the narrator is thankful for lollipops, all the other things are wonderful like a teacher’s encouragement, grandma’s hugs, and sunny days and to me the lollipops sorta fall flat. Easily skipped over if you are not keen on it but the book as a whole is valuable teaching tool about thanksgiving.

M is for Maple, a Canadian Alphabet by Mike Ulmer. This book will make you feel proud to be from Canada if you are Canadian and teach you something about your neighbour if you aren’t . It will also teach your children things about the country they live in and why we feel pride when we hear names like Terry Fox, Anne with an E and Gretzky! I love this book and have since I first read it during teacher’s college in Thunder Bay, if you can be happy about being in Canada during a very cold Thunder Bay winter you can be happy about it anywhere.