Easy Fall and Thanksgiving Crafts For Kids Ideas

The last few weeks before the holiday season are always a time to “finish” for me. I feel much better entering a new year without “old projects” lingering.

My first session of extracurricular art classes ended this past week. I can’t wait until they start again because my wheels have really been turning and some great ideas are ready and waiting. We finished up loose ends, sent the kids home with an unfinished project to work on, and enjoyed some classic holiday crafts.

Had to share some more bubble wrap corn. I think they look great all grouped together!

These little handprint turkeys were a hit- every child made four handprints. I then cut them all out and let the kids glue everything onto a recycled tp tube that they had already painted and glued features to.

My littlest kids made this version of “handprint” turkeys. I absolutely love that they are kissing.

I’m failry certain these will be hung in a spot of honor during the Thanksgiving season!

My oldest kids finished painting and trimming some papier mache bowls we’ve been working on.

We used art paste and tempera paint for these but if you are going to do this project, I highly recommend first covering bowls in a layer of gesso and then using acrylic paint for all decoration. The tempera isn’t thick enough to cover as well as I’d have liked. Either way, they are super cute little containers- ready to be filled with some kind of treasure.

I’m really into watercolor lately so we did a fun line drawing lesson that was all about careful observation. The kids could pick any kind of seashells and draw them using lines.

Then we filled everything in with watercolors.

We will definitely be doing some more line drawing in the future!

And last but not least…

Some loom weaving! Not sure what it is about fiber- but kids LOVE any kind of weaving, sewing, tying etc.

We didn’t have time to finish these so hopefully the kids are ok doing it at home on their own!

I can’t wait to try more yarn projects in the future. Definitely requires some patience but is so worth it once the children understand how to do it.

And finally, these cute little painted birdhouses. The watercolors soak nicely into the unfinished wood and are an easy medium for very little artists to use.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!