Thanksgiving Art Ideas for Kids

Here are a few of our favorite Thanksgiving-themed art projects -- for you to do at home!

This adorable Pop-Up Turkey Card is fun to make and requires only a few materials. We made these for Thanksgiving a couple years ago and the kids had so much fun! For ages 7 or 8 and up, even adults. (I had a blast making mine!) You can use them as a pop-up card, or you could embellish them a bit more to make beautiful 3D centerpieces for your Thanksgiving table. 

You'll need construction paper, printed paper (like scrapbook paper, for the napkin), aluminum foil, oil pastels (best for blending, but crayons will work), paint (optional, any kind), scissors, and glue. There is also an optional turkey shape template, which is available in the lesson, or you can make up your own turkey body shape.

Here are your Pop-Up Turkey step-by-step instructions plus the turkey template. 

This Colorful Turkey can be created by kinders through 2^nd grade or so.  First your child will draw the turkey, then paint it to create a 'resist' painting. After it dries, they (or an adult) can cut it out, glue it to construction paper, and add some leaves... beautiful! You’ll need a 12" x 18" piece of white sulphite (drawing) paper (or a smaller size works too), oil pastels (or crayons if you press hard), watercolors, craft feathers, glue, and a small plastic container lid (about 3” in diameter)

Here are your complete Turkey Drawing and Painting instructions, including an easy guided drawing lesson, a video, and a printable handout from Deep Space Sparkle. 

This fun Food Collage inspires gratitude and appreciation. It's an easy, open-ended Thanksgiving themed art activity for little ones, ages 3 to 5 or so. You’ll need: a paper plate (or a ‘plate’ cut-out), pictures of food from grocery store ads or magazines, markers or crayons, children’s scissors, and a glue stick. We've also included a printable First Thanksgiving coloring page – for ‘research’ purposes. 😉

1. Search. Look through your grocery ads and/or magazines for pictures of favorite foods. Help your child cut them out and glue them to the plate. It helps to tear out the page or cut around the picture so that the child isn’t dealing with an entire magazine or a giant newspaper page to cut out a desired image. Parents or older siblings could cut out pictures for toddlers.

2. Decorate the plate. Optional of course. Is this a special meal? Serve it on a special plate! Your child can design and decorate the plate with patterns or flowers or anything else!

3. Add the food. Glue the food onto the plate. Fill it up! Make sure the markers or crayons are within reach as well. Preschoolers often want to draw food on the plate too, especially if they couldn’t find all of their favorite foods to cut and paste.

Here's a printable (pdf) version of Foods I Am Thankful For step-by-step instructions.

Next up: Our favorite autumn-themed art project ideas for kids.