5 Easy Crafts For A Kid’s Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a great opportunity to spend more time with your kids, so why not do some easy, fun crafts with them!? Here’s our quick list for easy crafts for a kid’s Thanksgiving that double as homemade decor or toys!

Updated 8/27/2022

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It’s the holiday season now, which is a great time to spend more time with your family. Our favorite way to spend more time with our little one is through fun projects, crafts and activities. For Thanksgiving, we like to create things that are fun to play with, become Thanksgiving table decor, or turn into cards for us to give Thanks to our families. So here’s our five favorite easy crafts for a kid’s Thanksgiving!

5 Easy Crafts For a Kid’s Thanksgiving

Supplies for All Crafts

We personally are trying to use up all our existing art supplies before purchasing more eco-friendly supplies. It’s always best to use up what you have before buying new eco-friendly products.

#1 Thankful Salt Dough Leaf Prints

I remember making fingerprint impressions in salt dough ornaments as a kid. Well you can do a lot with salt dough, including making Thankful Leaf Prints! They make a great handmade gift for someone and are an easy craft for kids.

Materials: Leaves, Flour, Salt, Water, Rolling pin, Jar/Cookie Cutter

• Make Salt Dough: Mix ½ cup salt, ½ cup water, and 1 cup flour. Knead until a smooth dough (add more flour if sticky).
• Roll out Salt Dough mixture and cut into desired space. We used a small jar to make circles
• Press leaves into cutout shapes and place in baking pan/sheet
• Cook for 2-3 hours at 200° F in an oven (time varies based on thickness).
• Write a thankful message using a fine tip marker
• Give as gifts to say thank you!

Tip – If you want a hole to hang it from, make sure to poke one before cooking! You could also glue a magnet on the back for the fridge

#2 Acorn Handprints

My little one is obsessed with acorns when we go for Nature Walks right now. So these acorn handprints make fun easy crafts for a kid’s Thanksgiving. If you’re kids are a little older, you could make a whole series of prints to tell a story or talk about what you can find on your Nature Walks. I personally keep these acorn handprints for the memory of tiny hands, but you could give them away as gifts for grandparents.

Materials: Paint, Printer Paper, and your little one’s hands

• Collect materials and mix up the colors for the acorn (great little teaching lesson on color theory!)
• Paint your little one’s hand and press to paper
• Let dry and add acorn details!

Tip – Do this near a sink to be able to quickly wash paint off hands and not be wasteful by needing to use disposable wet wipes.

#3. Leaf Toilet Paper Roll Turkey

Okay after the 2020 toilet paper shortage, I’m sure many of you hate thinking about toilet paper. My mom always collected things for crafts and I remember making things out of toilet paper rolls. So inevitably, I’ve collected a few and found a fun way to repurpose them instead of just recycling them! You can make all kinds of creatures, but we’re being festive and making some traditional turkeys for this kids thanksgiving craft.

Materials: Toilet Paper Roll, Leaves, Markers, Glue, Scissors & Paper

• Cut toilet paper roll into thirds (good size for little hands)
• Let your kid arrange leaves into a fun fan pattern for the tail feathers. Glue onto the back of the roll
• Create a cute face using paper and markers
• Use as Thanksgiving table decorations or as a fun toy for imaginative play.

Tip – I’ll probably compost this once the leaves start to fall apart and my little one isn’t interested in it anymore

#4 Pinecone Turkey

So we really do love collecting items while on Nature Walks, especially acorns and pinecones. This is a fun alternative to the Toilet Paper Roll Turkey and works in a similar way. 

Materials: Pinecones, Paint, Glue, Markers, Scissors & Paper

• Collect supplies and get paints ready for kids
• Take your pinecone and paint each of the scales’ insides different warm colors (yellow, orange, red). Let dry.
• Create a cute face using paper and markers. Glue on face.
• Use as Thanksgiving table decorations or as a fun toy for imaginative play.

Tip – If your kid is a little younger like mine (2 year old), make sure to help demonstrate the process of painting the pinecone. And don’t get caught up on whether it’s perfect or not! It’s fun and special either way!

#5 Traditional Handprint Turkeys

So you’ve all probably seen these or done them as kids. It’s just a fun easy Thanksgiving craft that kids enjoy! Also, it makes mamas like me tear up to see how big my little one’s hands have gotten in just a year!

Materials: Printer Paper, Paint, & Marker

• Collect supplies and prep paint for kid
• Paint the palm of the hand and thumb brown, and then the other fingers with a mix of warm colors (yellow, orange, red). 
• Press hand onto paper and let dry
• Add a fun turkey face and legs to the hand print
• Hang the hand print turkey on the refrigerator or gift to a grandparent.

Tip – Make sure to write the kid’s name and year on the back/front so you remember how old they were!

Other Eco-friendly Fall Crafts & Activities

Also, make sure to check out our Top 10 Eco-friendly Fall Crafts & Activities for Toddlers & Kids and Fall Scented Homemade Playdough! It has a lot of other fall related crafts and activities that are fun to do this time of year!

Now time to get to making those easy crafts for kids’ Thanksgiving!

Hope this roundup of easy crafts for a kid’s Thanksgiving helps you make some fun festive things! Let us know what you think of the kids’ Thanksgiving crafts in the comments below!

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