Keeping the Kids Busy -- Thanksgiving Craft Ideas

I have a confession.

I have never cooked a turkey or cooked a Thanksgiving meal for that matter.  Coming from someone who loves to cook, this may come as a surprise but it's true.  We've been fortunate that usually Thanksgiving finds us as guests at the table of friends or family who graciously take on the bulk of the cooking responsibilities.  I help out where I can but know when to stay out of the kitchen.

The past few years, my role on Thanksgiving has been one of child entertainer.  Depending on the weather there may be a slew of young cousins running amuck with no way to productively expend their energy. 

Today I am going to share with you links to come of my favorite crafts for Thanksgiving.  Now's the time to peruse the options, see what crafts supplies you have on hand and which you might need to buy and decide on a craft or two!

First Palette -- this site has fantastic, step by step instructions with pictures!  A great resource for the craft challenged.  I've made the paper strip pumpkin, Mayflower ship, and paper cup turkey from the directions on this page.

The Crafty Crow -- this site is a compilation of links to other blogs and craft pages.  Be forewarned may of the ideas here are a bit more labor, time and skill intensive.  Still great ideas!

Red Ted Art -- a great blog with many kid friendly craft ideas

Google Images if my friend for craft ideas!

Projects for Preschoolers -- if you have a younger crowd this is a good resource for less intensive activities

Preschool Express -- I have this bookmarked under "learning" instead of "crafts" but this is a great source for written ideas on activities or things to do with the preschool crowd that may or may not involve an actual craft activity

Google Images -- Google is my friend.  Google Images is a particularly good friend.  I use the search engine to visual scroll through a ton of ideas [try searching Thanksgiving Kids Crafts] and if something looks appealing I can usually link directly to the source.  Also a great way to see different variations of the same craft.

It might be a good idea to search for some quick Christmas countdown crafts too!  Black Friday is a great time to work on those.
My kids have enjoyed a candy countdown like this except we use after-dinner mints as the candy.