Fun Thanksgiving Craft Project

I know there are a couple of you homeschool moms, a preschool teacher, and some moms who like to do craft projects with their kids, who read this blog. So I'm posting our Thanksgiving craft project--a handprint placemat--here because it was fairly easy for my kids, took only 1/2 hour, and made a nice project that could be used as a gift for a family member or friend. (Mom, if one of the kids decides to give you his/her placemat, act surprised, okay?)

Anyway, I always like to incorporate some academic skills into craft projects, so I started by marking measured dots on the front of a regular piece of construction paper. We used fall colors. About 1.5 inches from a short end of the paper I made a row of dots every 1 inch. This end of the paper is the end that will NOT be cut all the way through. I did the same at the other end of the paper but closer to the edge, as this is the edge where the cutting will start. Then I told the two older kids to use their previously learned skill of using a straight-edge to draw a straight line between two points. They were told to draw the line from the dot at the NO CUT edge all the way through the other dot to the other end of the paper. Then they had to cut along their lines to make parallel strips all attached at one end. This was the background of their placemats.

I had already cut strips of other colors of paper. The strips were 1 inch wide. Each child chose two colors which were different from the color of their background. The strips were woven into the placemat using alternating colors. (No, that's not Merrilee's Diet Coke!)

After all the weaving was done to within about 1.5 inches of the open end, the strips were snuggled in tightly and the ends were glued to the background. This prevents the strips from slipping out later. I completed all this for Katie Mei because she's a menace to society when she gets her hands on scissors.

When the placemats were all glued in place, the kids painted their palms and fingers with brown paint and made brown turkey handprints on their placemats. (Katie Mei had just awaken from her nap and she was a sweaty mess, but she was happy being painted!)

Then they used red, brown, green, yellow, and orange paint to add finishing touches to their turkey prints.

After the paint was dry, I used clear contact paper to cover the front and back of each placemat. The kids now have a nice little wipeable placemat to use for the next couple weeks. And if the placemats are still in decent condition after that time, I have a nice momento of their handprints and artwork to put in their folder.

Happy Turkey Painting!

Petrie