My First Thanksgiving

It’s that time of year again, spending time with friends and family over Thanksgiving. This year might be slightly different, as we all deal with the constraints of COVID-19 along with the colder weather ahead. In any case, making memories for the kiddos is still important.

At My Organic Company, our staff spent some time this weekend making Thanksgiving crafts for kids. Baby’s first Thanksgiving should have some mementos, so our DIY Thanksgiving crafts for kids were tested by our team before sharing them with you.

We hope you enjoy making your own as well!

1. Handprint Turkeys

2. Handprint and Footprint Turkeys

3. Thankful Tree

4.Final Thoughts

Looking for paper Thanksgiving crafts for kids? The handprint turkey was one of those easy Thanksgiving crafts for kids. One of our moms decided to try this with her 4-year-old and baby, as it’s a “my first Thanksgiving” craft indeed! Here is how to make baby’s 1st Thanksgiving craft and our own staff’s experience with it:

"My kids and I had a blast creating this amazing turkey using their handprints." - My Organic Company Staff member

First make sure you have all of the necessary supplies:

Cardstock or Construction Paper (we used cardstock): White, Green, Red, Orange, Yellow

Glue Stick

Scissors

Black ink pen

Ribbon spool or another circular object.

Small craft paint bottle or another small circular object

Create a template using cardstock. I used white cardstock for the template.

Trace the kid’s hands. I traced the right hands of both of my kids.

Create the turkey head and body. I used a ribbon spool, but you can use anything that is a circle, for the body. I used a bottle of craft paint for the head shape.

Create the beak and legs. I free handed the beak and legs, you can make them look however you would like. I just did a triangle for the beak, and created a template out of white cardstock for the legs.

Color and use templates to create hand print feathers and feet: I colored the body and head of the turkey brown. I used the template I created for the handprints to create the different color hand print feathers.

I had also used a template I created for the feet to cut out four feet from yellow cardstock. The beak I just cut out a triangle shape from orange card stock

Glue everything together: I used a glue stick to glue everything together. I then used a pen to create the eyes and wings.

Once everything is together, you will have a beautiful turkey and great memories created with your children!

Looking for other Thanksgiving arts and crafts for kids? We definitely think this was falls under the category of fun kids crafts for Thanksgiving. And this would be the perfect newborn first Thanksgiving memento to make.

One of our moms did this project with her one year old and with her 8-year-old. The older kid agreed this was her favorite Thanksgiving crafts for kids project yet! Here is how to make these cute Thanksgiving crafts for kids:

First, make sure you have all the necessary supplies:

Construction Paper – Red, White (2 sheets), Orange

Googly Eyes

Washable Paint – Red, Yellow, Orange, Brown

Baby Wipes

Scissors

Glue Stick

Next – get ready to have some messy fun and keep those baby wipes close by!

Tip: We used paintbrushes to paint the colors onto our hands and feet to help with clean up

Here’s the steps:

Paint orange onto one hand (we used the same foot as hand, but after putting them together, it might be best to try different foot than hand).

Carefully press the hand onto the white construction paper and lift it off. Use your baby wipes to clean the hand, and then repeat this step with red and yellow. Make sure to layer the handprints just slightly off – so you can create the turkey’s feathers!

Next it’s time to paint the foot. Paint the toes orange, and the rest of it brown. Carefully press it onto the other white construction paper. And wipe the foot clean with the wipes.

Now it’s time to dry! We laid ours out in the sun and used our baby pumpkins as weights.

Once the papers have dried, cut each of them out.

Next you will cut out the beak from the orange paper. Fold it in half and cut a small triangle for the beak.

Your turkey needs its wattle now (or as I always called it as a kid, the gobbler LOL). Use your red paper and fold it in half, then cut a tear-drop shape.

Time for the glue stick! Glue the wattle, beak, and googly eye on the heel of the foot. Then glue the foot onto the handprint.

Viola! You’re done! If you want you can do both feet and hands, or you can make a turkey for each family member. Our one year old was wiggly and squirmy, so I painted fast and wiped faster! In retrospect, doing this project at the kitchen table may not have been the best idea, but thankfully that paint does come up quickly!

Our final simple Thanksgiving crafts for kids project was a thankful tree. This is another one of those mess-free paper Thanksgiving crafts for kids. We even think you could turn the thankful trees into baby’s first Thanksgiving card perhaps to give to the grandparents!

One of our moms did this project with her baby and the whole family. From baby’s first Thanksgiving to momma’s (not going to count how many) Thanksgiving, the whole family enjoyed this Thanksgiving arts and crafts for kids project. Here is how to make your thankful tree.

For each person participating gather 1 of the following:

Construction Paper - Brown, Red, Green, Yellow, Orange, White

Scissors

Glue Sticks

Leaf Template - you can use anyone you like

Pencil

Marker

With the big kids helping the littles, each step of the project was quickly done and everyone had so much fun. 

Here are the steps:

1. For the tree outline use brown construction paper and trace either arm and hand from the elbow all around the fingers.

2. Glue the “tree” to white construction paper. You can see we had a bunch of cutting and gluing happening all at once at our table!

3. Using the leaf templates make varying shape leaves in red,green, yellow and orange

4. On each leaf write something to be thankful for.

5. Glue each thankful leaf to the tree.

Mom tip: Make sure you put the littles name and year on the picture. When you pull out the memory years later it will be fun to see how much everyone has grown.

Also, we displayed all our work on the wall (as you can see from the first picture) to add to the holiday decor in our house. It's a great way to make your home comfy and inviting when guests come over!

We truly enjoyed these easy Thanksgiving crafts for kids and baby’s first Thanksgiving craft ideas. Even if they don’t turn out exactly the way you imagine, find the joy in the moment of spending time with the kiddos.

Sometimes creating memories together is the best part of any craft. The crafts we shared are only a few of the many ideas out there, but we hope we at least got the wheels turning in your creative minds and that we inspired some crafting time with your families.

Feel free to share your completed projects in the same way that you share your favorite European Baby Formula in the comments below. Or better yet, share these projects in the HiPP Holle Kendamil & European Baby Formula Parent Community – so other moms can be inspired by your creativity as well!