Not a Turkey

Of course we didn't only make turkeys. We also made a banner on which we wrote things we are thankful for. 

Anthony made an Indian headband at the Y (Katie made one too at school).

I stocked up on ideas for this school-free week, and we went to the museum of Natural Science on Monday. Both little ones were exhausted and required a nap when we got home, so Ellie got some rare one-on-one time. I gave her popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, plastic cutlery, and rubber bands, and told her to make a catapult. 

I made one too. 

We launched candy corn. 

We also made paper boats, and we pretended the Indians were shooting at the Pilgrims before Ellie declared that they were friends and should not be fighting. 

Eventually, Katie woke up and Paul got home, and they joined in on the fun. We even tried shooting the candy corn into each other's mouths with the catapults. I'm thinking this might be a fun Thanksgiving day activity with extended family...

We also cut open a pumpkin and put potting soil in it to see if we can get the seeds to sprout. Time will tell...

And I found some cute tracing and do-a-dot worksheets for the girls too. They were a little beneath Ellie, but she adjusted them to her skill level by adding to the pictures. 

I had picked up these growing crystal trees over the summer and never got around to doing them with the girls. They are fall colors, so I figured they'd be just right. It was cool to see them grow. 

We also had to make slime. "Pumpkin Pie" slime, of course, orange in color and scented with cinnamon... In mini pie tins for the full experience. I tried to make soluble fiber slime, but I must have bought the wrong kind of fiber, because it totally didn't work... So we went with tried and true borax and glue. Perfect. 

Next up, candy corn science experiments. We predicted what would happen if we put candy corn in water, microwaved it, and froze it. Then we performed the experiments and recorded our observations. Pretty cool. 

I take no credit for the activity, but I can't remember where the idea and printable came from. 

And lastly, I put together some placecards/napkin holders with everyone's photo. Ellie picked who got to be an Indian and who got to be a pilgrim. I think they turned out super cute!

Our table is ready... 

We really do have so much to be thankful for. 

A time to give thanks

It can be overwhelming to try to give something to everyone at school during Christmas time, and often the support staff is overlooked during holiday giving time, so Thanksgiving is the perfect time to acknowledge the people in my children's lives, from the classroom teachers and special subject teachers to the school nurse, secretary, and receptionists. An apple with caramel sauce is a simple, inexpensive, and usually much-appreciated gift. Teachers don't often receive actual apples, and it's a healthy(ish), single-serving snack. 

Just dress them up with some tulle, twine, and a cute little tag, and they are set!

Ellie signed her name on the back of the tags, and each tag was personalized with the recipient's name. None of them expected a token of gratitude for Thanksgiving, so the surprised and happy looks on their faces were pretty awesome. 

Turkeys Turkeys everywhere

If you need a few craft ideas to keep the kids busy while they wait for Thanksgiving dinner, here are a few turkey crafts we've made over the past week. 

Sticky foam turkeys... Anthony's is, um, deconstructed. I cut the feathers and other pieces from sticky back foam board. The kids did the rest. I also wrote the outline for the words on Katie's. She's really into tracing letters lately. 

I know you'll be too busy preparing dinner to bother with decorating sugar cookies, but I had to share these because this post is all about turkeys, after all... I used a hand-shaped cookie cutter and decorated these chai spice sugar cookies to look like turkeys! They were enjoyed at Ellie's school Thanksgiving feast. I still am not the best at making decorated cookies and find the task to be quite tedious, but I always remember this halfway through the process. Oops. 

We also painted with pinecones instead of brushes... What does this have to do with turkeys?!

Well, we used the painted paper to make turkeys of course! 

Katie made the classic turkey handprint at school. I just gotta show it off. Plus it's a really cute craft. 

Another fun thing we did was a feather scavenger hunt, an idea I got from the No Time for Flashcards blog. I hid different colored feathers around the living room, and the girls searched high and low for them. 

They enjoyed this activity very much... We hid them over and over! 

They counted out their feathers to make sure they had found them all. I had 9 feathers for each girl, and they were only allowed to have one of each color, which encouraged them to help each other find the colors they needed. 

The game lasted about an hour. When they got tired, they made pinecone turkeys with their feathers and some more foam board. 

I love these crafts. They're fun to make, and now that I have all these cute turkeys, we can use them to add a little whimsy to the Thanksgiving decor. 

Happy Thanksgiving!