It’s nearing Canadian Thanksgiving time once again! Only a week to go, so we’ve begun our yearly activities a couple of days ago.
Yesterday I went up into the attic to bring down the autumn box of decorations to help bring the house into season. I try to keep the attic tidy and organised, but it’s become much more difficult to do with 2 children!
The time to do these necessary bits are hard to find, and on top of that, these children keep growing up-so the outgrown clothes and toys all find their way up into the attic. An attic that unfortunately doesn’t grow any larger. With childminding I can’t get rid of all the outgrown toys as I may need them again in the future (and of course there are some things that are just too sentimental to part with, like Tristan’s preemie clothes he wore in the neo-natal unit).
But beginning to thin through these items does make me extremely thankful that we have such a loving family and that our two children are happy and healthy. I’m also thankful for the items that have been given to us and handed down to us, and that our children don’t need for anything. They may want a few things, but there’s nothing missing that they need.
Anyways…our first Thanksgiving project is an oldie but a goody. We did this every year in school, and you’re never too old to make another one!
To make the turkey’s body, draw around your child’s hand, or if they are able, let them do it themselves.
Draw on a comb, waddle, beak, eye and legs/feet. Then let their little imaginations run wild with the design of the the turkey feathers.
Tristan drew a sun and some grass for the turkey to feast on as well. At first he wasn’t sure what he should do with his hand print, so I drew a small one and quickly threw some colour in it. Tristan thought it was good enough to cut out and add to his picture! A high honour indeed for my little chicken-scratches!
The pictures were finished off with this poem:
This isn’t just a turkey,
As anyone can see.
It was made with my hand,
Which is a part of me.
It comes with lots of love,
Especially to say.
I hope you have a very
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
At the time of this post Kallista hadn’t yet finished colouring her turkey, but Tristan has done a great job!
This is a good project to do and to bring out again each year to compare the size of the children’s hands and see how their colouring has improved and the designs change.
If you like hand print crafts, be sure to see our posts on handprint flowers, handprint sheep, and our handprint Canadian flag.
Visit our Thanksgiving page to see all of our Thanksgiving ideas in one place. We’ll add to it as time goes on.
