Homemade Thanksgiving Place Mats

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. By now you probably have your menu in place and decorations purchased for the big day. If you are involving the kiddies in the kitchen another way to involve them is making homemade Thanksgiving place mats. There are so many cute ideas to do this. Here are a few I have done with my kids through the years:

Before you begin, you will need a variety of paint colors (preferably fall colors), large construction paper (fall colors), and a laminator.

Turkey Hand Prints-Have your child dip their hands (one or both) in fall colored paint...red, orange, brown, or yellow, and press side by side on the the paper. For an easier experience, paint their hands (palm side) and hold their hands down and press firmly onto the paper. When the handprints dry, use markers to write on the hands or fingers (turkey feathers) what they are thankful for. Laminate and presto! These turn out to be very cute.  To take this one up a notch you can add feathers to turn them into turkey handprints!

Thankful Quotes-Have the kiddies find their favorite quotes and type them out on fall colored computer paper. Cut into different shapes and paste onto the construction paper. When dry, laminate. Take this one up a notch and have the kids draw a thankful tree and surround the tree with the quotes. 

As you can see, you can get as creative as you wish with the Thanksgiving place mats. For preschoolers, have them find different foods from a magazine they would like to eat at their Thanksgiving dinner. This can actually be pretty funny. They will then glue on the foods to their construction paper. Laminate and you are good to go! To take this one of up a notch, draw or glue a picture of a dinner plate where they can strategically place their dinner foods.