Seasons > > Autumn >  Ways to celebrate > Thanksgiving Activities for Families

Read books about how God saved the Pilgrim’s their first year in the new world, and how they gave thanks to God for providing for their needs. Picture books will keep young children’s attention, and reading chapter books out loud will help older children hear material that they would not read on their own. Any books that you can find with activities will enrich their experience that much more.

Watch videos depicting the Pilgrims, or other historical events for the beginning of the United States.

Help your children put on a skit or two depicting the first Thanksgiving, especially if a lot of relatives gather for Thanksgiving day. If not, invite some friends over to watch the presentation.

Research how Thanksgiving became an American holiday. Make a Thanksgiving trivia quiz for your children. Or better yet, help you children make a quiz for the adults who will be celebrating Thanksgiving with you.

Check local museums and parks for Thanksgiving events. Sometimes they have reenactments or exhibit crafts from those time periods, such as soap making and candle making.

Make simple pilgrim costumes for your children to wear. Goodwill is a great source for these--buy a black skirt that is long enough to be at least ankle length for your daughter. Take out an inch in the waistband so you can run elastic through it to make the waist fit. Have her wear a black sweater or sweatshirt. If you don’t have a white apron, pin a white ribbon to a white tea towel. For nickers for a boy, cut off dark pants to about mid-calf. Sew or glue a hem in each leg, and run elastic through these hems. Wear with knee socks and a dark sweater or sweatshirt. Make simple collars and cuff to tuck into sleeves--make it out of felt, and you don’t have to hem any edges.

Give your children craft materials to make decorations or place cards for the Thanksgiving table--turkeys, pilgrims, indians, ships, corn, etc.  If they need ideas, get books out of the library, or get them to look at ideas on the Family Fun website.

Make corn husk dolls. Check out a craft book from the library that explains how.

Make pins with beads in the shape of Indian corn for the girls and women to wear. String yellow, brown and orange beads onto a chenille wire, and glue on a pin back, and crepe paper corn husks.

Decorate a tablecloth, or napkins, or place mats. Roll a thin layer of acrylic paint onto a smooth surface, and press real leaves onto the paint, and then onto the fabric. Let dry. It will look best if one color fades into another color (a yellow leaf tipped in orange, or an orange leaf tipped in red.)

Make a Thanksgiving tree. Collect branches and put them in a vase, or some other container (make sure it is heavy enough to not topple over--put rocks in the bottom to give it more weight.) Cut out paper leaves in different fall colors. Pass out the leaves and let each person write things they are thankful for. Provide tape or thread to fasten the leaves to the branches. As an alternative, Make a paper banner and glue the leaves to branches drawn onto the banner.

Make a Thanksgiving turkey. Cut feather shapes out of paper, and have everyone write things for which they are thankful. Then get them to poke them into the tail of the turkey. Your children can make the turkey by covering a styrofoam ball with paper mache, or a light weight  modeling compound, such as Hearty (Karui Kaminendo.) Make the head out of the same material. Make legs out of chenille wires. For the tail, cut two cardboard circles, and poke a brad or bobbypin through both circles and into the styrofoam. Now slide the tail feathers in between the two circles.

Give thanks to God for His abundant blessing all month.  Every Thursday all month, during family devotions, only give thanks--it is harder than it sounds, because we are so used to asking for things. I thought that it was such and important lesson to teach my children, that we actually did this every Thursday all year round--we certainly receive blessings and answered prayers all year round! I didn’t want our family to be like the 9 lepers who were healed, but neglected to give thanks!

Make a notebook of all the things you are thankful for, and update it every year. Some things remain the same year after year (such as freedom of religion) Others are new each year, such as answered prayer. We forget so quickly. Let us resolve to remember God’s good deeds, and help our children realize how often God hears those who call on Him--just as the Israelites made monuments to help their children remember how God saved them on so many occasions. Make this a fun activity for your children. Below are some ideas that might make giving thanks fun for children.

Make collages with magazine pictures, or family photos of things each person is thankful for. Each person can make his or her own collage, or everyone can make one together.

Make lists of things for which each person is thankful, and give a prize to the person with the longest list.

Play a game similar to Scattegories. Each person makes a list of things for which he or she is thankful. Then compare the lists, and cross off all the items that others also wrote. The winner is the one with the longest list of unique items.

Play charades of things for which each person is thankful, (if you are doing this in conjunction with a notebook, have someone compile a list for the notebook.)

Divide everyone into groups, and see who can come up with the most creative advertisement depicting something for which they are thankful. Be sure to record all the fun!!

Activities to make exploring history fun

Activities to make giving thanks fun

Activities to help strengthen bonds with relatives

Play games that encourage interaction, such as Family Stories or Chicken Soup for the Family Soul. Even if you don’t want to play it as a game, you can stack the cards on the table, or leave one on each plate. Everyone will enjoy listening to the stories that the questions inspire.  If you don’t have these games, make up your own questions to get the old timers and younguns telling stories.. Another source for conversation starters--packs of 100 question cards on a ring. The have won the Dr. Toy award in 2009, and best vacation product award. They are called Family Talk I & II, Grandparent Talk, and Buddy Talk. They are available, among other places, through Chinaberry, a children’s vender:

www.chinaberry.com

Record interviews with older relatives. If you help your children come up with good questions ahead of time, they can conduct the interviews while you are busy with meal preparations. Your children can take turns being the cameraman and journalist. By doing such a simple activity, your children will learn new skills, learn family history, get to know relatives better, and a priceless keepsake will be created.

Make a family tree, or if several families are present, provide materials for each family to make one. Provide paper, pens, photos of each person, and an original to inspire as well as provide the correct information.

Make a family timeline, and or family history. If you make it an annual event, it can be updated every year. It will be fun to look at as the years speed by.

Have your children make a newspaper about the family events for that year, and print out copies so everyone who comes for Thanksgiving dinner can read a copy. Be sure to save a copy, and clip it into a notebook incase it becomes an annual tradition.

Use this gathering as an excuse to take a family photo. Try to come up with a new creative way to pose for the photo every year. You could even create your own “Norman Rockwell” Thanksgiving masterpiece.

Make up a family history trivia game, and see which family unit knows the family history best.

Seasons > > Autumn >  Ways to celebrate > Thanksgiving Activities for Families

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