A big part of kindergarten is arts and crafts time, so whether you are a parent or a teacher, having lots of ideas for kindergarten crafts on hand is important. You can find a lot of great ideas for kindergarten crafts at different web sites dedicated to the crafter both experienced and inexperienced. Kindergartners are just learning about things like making letters, adding numbers, and reading. But making kindergarten crafts is also an important part of the learning experience as being creative is a big part of learning. Try a couple of these fun kindergarten crafts – specifically, holiday kindergarten crafts.

A cute Thanksgiving kindergarten crafts project is to make a pinecone turkey. You need a pinecone – preferably, the “fat” kind, some scissors, construction paper, and glue. First, cut out eyes from black construction paper or buy some wiggly eyes from a discount store. Cut a small triangle out of yellow construction paper. Draw and cut out a teardrop shape on red construction paper for the turkey’s wattle. Cut out legs and feet from brown construction paper. Finally, cut out several feather shapes from different colors of construction paper. Assembly is easy. Just glue on the various face parts and the feathers in between the cone’s openings.

Another of the kindergarten crafts that we like is also a Thanksgiving turkey although you can adapt this craft to fit any season or time of year. Paint a paper plate brown, and while the paint is drying, cut out six large feathers from various colors of construction paper. One inch from the edge cut out the center of each feather. Use a glue stick to apply glue around the edge and then place colored tissue paper or cellophane on top of the feather. Press to stick and trim around the edge of the feather. Glue the feathers to the paper plate and draw on a face. Don’t forget to make feet out of construction paper! This craft looks great hanging in a window where the sun can shine through it!

There are lots of kindergarten crafts web sites that have many great ideas for arts and crafts time. One web site we especially like can be found at www.enchantedlearning.com. This site has kindergarten crafts ideas for all holidays and seasons as well as printables like books, worksheets, and coloring pages. If you can’t find something on Enchanted Learning that you can use for kindergarten crafts, you can go elsewhere on the Web, but we are relatively sure that you will be able to find everything you could ever need on here for kindergarten crafts and much, much more!

Debra McDonough
Wrapsody Designs

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday! What a spiritual renewal to take a day to reflect over the past year about just how good God has been to you and your family, to give you harvest and shelter, health and hope. To get the most out of this joyous occasion, make some holiday crafts with your children. These days, Halloween’s spooky decorations and the lights and gala of Christmas often squeeze Thanksgiving out. With the following holiday crafts, your home can be decorated for this quieter but important celebration.

Turkeys are a natural choice for decorations. A familiar project at this time of year is for a child to trace around her hand and make the resulting drawing into a turkey. The thumb is the head and the fingers are the tail feathers all displayed. While many of the turkeys that are raised for food are now the domestic white variety, the turkeys eaten by the Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving were the wild brown ones. The tail feathers on a wild turkey are brown, but they are iridescent. Catching light and appearing to be multi-colored. This is why children color the tail feathers in bright colors.

The turkey’s head has a wattle under the beak. This is a vertical flap of loose skin that is red colored. Be sure to draw this in order to make the hand turkey look like a turkey. Add skinny legs and bird feet. When done, the children can cut out the turkeys and hang them on the wall. It’s really cute to make a whole flock of these turkeys in the sizes of all the hands in the family. The little hand shapes are particularly sweet.

Another nice turkey decoration to make when making Thanksgiving holiday crafts is a turkey door decoration. Make a brown construction paper body and head of a turkey. Now make a large number of colored feather shapes. Each family member writes on a feather something he or she is thankful for before attaching as part of the turkey’s tail. Repeat until all the feathers are used, and hang the turkey on the front door to greet visitors with a message of gratitude. Make a sign to accompany the turkey that says, “Give thanks to the Lord for He is good!” or simply “Be thankful!” Or “We’re thankful for you!” or whatever you like.

Children love making construction paper chains. To further decorate the house for Thanksgiving, let them make a paper chain in fall colors as one of their holiday crafts. Using 9 by 12 inch construction paper cut the paper in half across the long side and cut the halves into one-inch thick six-inch long strips. Use a stapler to attach the ends of the strip into a circle. Loop the next strip into the circle and staple it. Continue the process alternating colors of brown, red, yellow, and orange. When the chains are long, you can drape them along the ceiling or stair rail. If you don’t make the door turkey, the children can write something they’re thankful for on each strip of paper before adding it to the chain.

Thanksgiving is too nice a holiday to let the other more commercial holidays crowd it out. By making holiday crafts to decorate the home for Thanksgiving, you can keep this day special, too. The extended family, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc., will be pleased to see the holiday crafts the young ones have made to decorate the house and make it cheerful for their visit.