I don’t know about you, but as a kid I sometimes found Thanksgiving dinner a little, well, boring. And we all know how not-so-delightful bored kids can be! Especially if someone who hasn’t had young kids in a while is hosting your family dinner, you’ll want to plan ahead to avoid a disaster. If you’re looking for some simple screen-free, Thanksgiving ideas to keep your kids busy before or after the big meal, then carve out a few minutes to print or assemble a few of these activities other parents have created and pack them along for the big day!
Turkey Number Sense
I love that you can pretty much create any of these activities with stuff you have on hand — or by visiting your local Dollar Tree! My favorite here is probably the pompom pumpkin pie — and you could probably do some of these with an older baby or 1 year old — with careful supervision, of course! Using tongs or spoons to move pom poms from one container to another can add a motor skills element to the play time, too. You may want to put the “ingredients” for each in an individual bag and then place several in a gallon-sized zip-top bag.
Open-ended Turkey Placemats
If you love Washi tape and the patterned masking tape that’s out as much as I do — and/or your kids like taping Everything. In. Sight. Then this one is for you! Stickers, white board markers, and white board crayons work on these page protector pouches, too — or you could opt to use clear Contact paper or laminating sheets instead. Either way, your kids will want to gobble this activity up!
Turkey Felt Board
I love teaching patterns this way! You could actually use felt “feathers” with the turkey placemats linked above or cut the turkey shape from brown felt. But if you just want to cut out easy-peasy strips of felt and round them on the edges like the pictures so they look a tad like actual feathers, your little one will still get to learn how to reproduce a pattern, which is an early math-related skill. If you want to make it even more interesting, you can cut out feet, the beak, and other parts of the turkey body out of felt, as well. You can also glue tiny pieces of felt to the backs of google eyes and throw in some pompoms for a little more variety.
Pumpkin (or Pumpkin Pie) Play Dough & Invitation To Play
This stuff smells good enough to eat! And this simple recipe is easier than pie to make! Although it’s not quite edible, it isn’t toxic, either. (Of course, you’ll want to keep a careful watch on any toddlers to make sure they don’t choke if they do put any in their mouth.) To achieve a brighter orange color, simply add some red and yellow food coloring.
You can combine the pumpkin play dough with a few other elements to make a Pumpkin Invitation To Play like this one or alter it to make it more suited to creating pumpkin pie: include mini pie tins or cupcake liners, some brown or tan play foam for the crust, and some mini marshmallows, in place of whipped cream!
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Image credits: Top © Trina Morford/Fotolia; Second © Kzenon/Fotolia.
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