Thanksgiving Weekend is here and that means entertaining family, friends and keeping a house of hyper kids happy… all while cooking for a small village. It’s normal for your children to be excited to see all ten of their cousins under the same roof. But with a hot stove and plenty of good china to break, keeping the herd calm can be as daunting as getting the Turkey right. Lucky for you, we’ve come up with a few excellent Thanksgiving activities for kids that will encourage participation, stimulate the mind and keep your home unbreakable this weekend.
Family Pilgrimage Tree:
Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks. However, most young children learn about The First Thanksgiving, a three day feast after the first harvest in 1621.Sneak some education into the weekend gathering with a Family Pilgrimage Tree. This is my favorite of the Thanksgiving Activities, because it will teach your children all about your family history, while reminding the kids how two different cultures came together (the Pilgrims and the Native Americans) for a celebration, just like the one you are hosting.
All you need is a few pieces of construction or printer paper and crayons. Ask each child to go grown up to grown up, asking questions about family members. If you don’t have time to come up with questions we’ve created a Family Pilgrimage Tree print out you can give out to the kids when they arrive. After each child has completed the tree, have them convene together and work on a family tree presentation which they can perform in front of everyone over coffee and pie!
- List your mom and dad’s name and where they were born, at the very bottom of the tree, mom on the right side and dad on the left.
- List your mother and father’s brother’s and sisters on each of their sides of the tree
- Who was your mommy’s mother and father and where were they born?
- List your grandparents names on the matching sides of the tree
- Where was your mother’s mom and dad born
- List your grandparents sisters and brothers, next to each name
- What was your grandparents mommy and daddy’s names and where were they born?
- List your great grandparents brothers and sisters names next to each name
The best part about this, is the kids will be busy helping each other and comparing notes… not to mention, learning all about their family members who may have been the first of their ancestors to come to America.
Kids Craft Smorgasbord
Ask your guests to bring anything that the kids can use to make thanksgiving crafts. We made a list of some essentials every parent will have handy. Set up a kiddie corner with all the craft supplies and ask each child to make a masterpiece that says why they are thankful. After they are finished, exhibit each work of art for the whole family to admire and let each child explain their vision of thanks.
Paper plates- Kid-friendly glue sticks, scissors
- Crayons
- Feathers, pipe cleaners, buttons
- Construction paper, stickers or stencils
Thanksgiving Leaf Art
This is an activity, best done in an area that can get a little messy. Have each kid pick out 10-15 leaves from the backyard and a twig. Use a large poster board, with foam backing as your canvas. Start them off by glueing each twig to the poster board (this works best if the grown up does this using hot glue and allowing for five minutes to dry). Next have each child glue their leaves over every twig, overlapping the leaves to form one giant maple leaf or a bunch of tiny leaves.