Thanksgiving Craft

I have been working on finishing up some unfinished projects.  I thought I better hurry and get this one done before we hit Thanksgiving.  I started it last year, but only got about halfway.  I found the directions at this blog.   I love hand-sewing.  I think it is so relaxing.  I am always on the lookout for a fun hand-sewing project and this one fit the bill.  I also love working with wool felt.  I love that Joann's has started  carrying some wool blend felt.  It feels so nice and soft, nothing like the acrylic stuff.   

A Turkey for Thanksgiving

I really don't have a lot of Thanksgiving books and I haven't even heard many that I have liked, but I found a great one this weekend. I was at Barnes and Noble and happened to see A Turkey for Thanksgiving, by Eve Bunting. I had never seen this book before and picked it up because I knew Bunting is a good author and because the illustrations were amazing. I couldn't resist buying it and when I showed it to my kids this morning it was a big hit. I think I have read it aloud at least 4 times today. My daughter loved it and even my older son liked it because the librarian at school had read it to his class, so he knew the "punchline" for the story before we started, which meant he got to know something before his sister, which always makes him happy. The book is the story of Mr. and Mrs. Moose who host Thanksgiving dinner for all their animal friends. Mrs. Moose is sad because they never have a turkey, so Mr. Moose tells her that he will find one for her. It is about his search and has a very cute twist at the end. I enjoyed this story so much that it has made me think that I need to have a collection of Thanksgiving stories. If anyone else knows of any great ones, post a comment and share!

Fantastic Thanksgiving Projects for Kids

You definitely need to check this out! So many great ideas all in one place!

Thankful Turkeys

For Family Home Evening last night we made "Thankful Turkeys". I got the idea from here. I loved her idea of a turkey you could use over and over, but I knew there was no way I would be able to do that project this year with a new baby, so I used her pattern as a starting place and made each family member his/her own turkey that could go in our scrapbook. I premade the turkeys after the kids were in bed Sunday night. I made 4 of them and it took maybe and hour or an hour and a half. Cutting out the feathers took the longest time. I traced a peanuts lid and cup overlapping to make the body and then used the Roots and Wings feather pattern for the "gobble" and tried to eyeball my own feather pattern in the size I needed by looking at the shape she used. I would have just used her pattern, but my printout of it was much smaller and I don't have a copier that I can enlarge it one, so I improvised. I got the pieces all glued onto the black cardstock and let them dry overnight (I just used elmer's glue because it was easy and I had tons of it). As we were leaving for school I showed the kids the turkeys and told them we would be writing things we were thankful for on them later ( I was hoping if I talked about it my daughter would start to understand, so she could come up with some things on her own). My daughter surprised me by immediately telling me she was thankful for lip gloss (you have no idea how much we go through lately!). Anyway, it really helped to talk about it through the day. By the time we got to Family Night, all they had to do was put the things they were thankful for on the feathers. My son was able to write his own and loved using a Sharpie. My daughter told me what to write and pointed to which color feather she wanted it written on.

Turkey Time

My almost 3 year old daughter loves art projects. Each time I decide to take the time to do one with her, I think why don't I do this more often. She could spend hours cutting and gluing, if I had the time to supervise it. Today we had some time, so I decided we would work on a Turkey. This was so simple to do and she loved it. Her favorite thing to do is glue and she loves to squeeze out tons of glue, so this was the perfect thing for her because you need quite a bit of glue to get the feathers to stick.

Here's a list of supplies you need:
glue
paper plate
feathers
2 orange pipe cleaners
colored construction paper
2 buttons

First we traced a cup onto brown paper. I cut it out and we glued a red feather for the "gobble" and an orange triangle for the beak. We glued on black buttons for the eyes. This makes the head. Set it aside to dry. Next have the child color the paper plate. Then let the child dump tons of glue on the plate in a horseshoe shape along the outside edges of the plate. Then let them go to town sticking feathers in the glue. They might have to add more glue as they go along. When they have as many feathers as they want, cut out a oval shape that will cover the rest of the paper plate and very ends of the feathers and glue it down on the plate. Glue the head so it overlaps the body and the feathers. Your plate will be sort of a wet mess at this point, but once it dries it will be fine. Use some wire cutters to cut the pipe cleaners in half (don't use scissors, I've done that before and it seriously messes up your scissors). Punch two holes in the bottom of the turkey where you want the feet. Fold one pipe cleaner over through the first hole and twist so it stays and hangs down. About halfway down twist another pipe cleaner so that you end up with a fork shape. This makes one foot. Do the same thing with the other 2 pipe cleaners for the second foot. You're left with a darling turkey! We added a bow in the end just for fun.