Mayflower Crafts

We aren't doing any "real" school this week. Instead we are wrapping up our Thanksgiving book reading and crafts, and beginning our Christmas crafts.

Today we read the books: Thanksgiving Mice, Let's Celebrate Thanksgiving and our printables from Apples 4 the Teacher. After reading, Hanna and Joe each made a Mayflower ship. I got both of their ideas from Kids' Soup. (I still LOVE this site!)

Joe's was really simple. I did the cutting for him and he glued everything down, and then drew some windows on his ship, designs on the sail and a flower. He takes the name Mayflower literally--too cute.

For Joe's I cut out a sail, a flag and a ship from construction paper. He glued them all together on blue construction paper to make his finished Mayflower.

Hanna made a more complex Mayflower ship. She used: an empty (small) milk carton, a brown paper lunch sack, craft sticks, construction paper and hot glue. You could use any type glue—Hanna prefers hot glue when she crafts most of the time.

What she did was cover the milk carton with the brown lunch sack. She glued together 2 craft sticks, cut slots in the top of the carton and slid them in. Next, she cut sails and flags out of construction paper and attached these to the craft sticks. She finished it off by drawing windows on the ship.

They both did a great job. We've enjoyed reading about the Pilgrims journey to America and the First Thanksgiving. We look forward to having our own Thanksgiving dinner later this week!

TP Turkeys

Here’s another cute turkey craft. It’s fun and is made with things you most likely have on hand.

You simply cut a paper plate to look like this, and paint it to resemble feathers and feet:

Cut a paper towel roll into two pieces, one longer one for the turkey’s body and a shorter one for the turkey’s head, and paint these pieces brown. Glue a beak and eyes onto the head. Glue head and some wings onto the body, and then glue this piece onto the plate.

So cute!

Homemade Play Doh Turkey and Turkey Books

I came across this turkey craft a couple weeks back and knew I wanted to make it!

I made our glitter play doh, gathered the other supplies and we were ready!

First, let me say this craft is so easy to make—even the play doh was super quick to mix up and cool off. I had enough for a total of 8 turkeys. We made two. I bagged up the rest of the play doh, along with the other craft supplies necessary for the finished turkey, and made them into craft kits for friends.

Play doh recipe:

• 2 C all purpose flour
• 1 c salt
• 2 c water
• 4 tsp cream of tartar
• 2 Tblsp vegetable oil
• glitter (optional—I used gold)

Directions:

1. If coloring your play doh, add food coloring to water first. **I colored mine light orange (a few drops of yellow and red) for this turkey craft.**
2. Cook and stir on med-low heat until dough forms, about 3 minutes. Be careful not to burn the sides and bottom.
3. When play doh is cool, knead in glitter until you get the look you desire.
4. After completely cooled, store in an airtight container.

Turkey Craft supplies:

• homemade play doh
• googly eyes
• orange craft foam
• assorted feathers
• orange or brown pipe cleaners
• scissors

Directions:

1. Make a medium sized pancake shape out of your play doh.
2. Poke feathers into the play doh.
3. Add googly eyes and beak made from foam by mashing into the play doh.
4. Make pipe cleaners into the turkey’s feet and poke into the bottom.

You’re done! Super quick and super cute too!

Now, for the books....We read one of our Thanksgiving favorites, and a new Thanksgiving book to go along with this craft.

One of our favorites--This is the Turkey, by Abby Levine is a cute story about a well intended turkey that ends up unexpectedly in the fish tank instead of on the dinner table! A cute story with a good ending.

A new book I discovered, The Thanksgiving Bowl, by Virginia L. Kroll, is about a special bowl that Grandma Grace uses each year for all family members to write down their "I'm thankful for's", and then read them after dinner. The bowl gets lost and goes on a month by month journey over the course of an entire year, and somehow ends up back in Grandma Grace's front yard a year later on Thanksgiving Day. This book kept Joe's interest and he enjoyed reading about where the bowl was going next, and then he was relieved to know it made it back home where it belonged.

We are enjoying crafting and reading good books so far this Thanksgiving season. I truly love this special time of year! I am blessed to have my wonderful children and husband to share in all of the fun activities we plan and memories we make together.

Scarecrow and Indian Corn Crafts

We’ve been making lots of fun Thanksgiving crafts! This week Joe made an adorable paper bag scarecrow….

….and fingerprint Indian Corn:

If you’d like to make either of these Fall crafts you can find them both *here*.

We also read two fun books about scarecrows, The Scarecrow’s Hat, by Ken Brown….

….and Scarecrow Pete, by Mark Kimball Moulton.

Joe enjoyed both of these books, however, he LOVED The Scarecrow’s Hat. We are having lots of fun crafting and reading about scarecrow’s, Pilgrims, turkeys and all things Fall and Thanksgiving!