More Thanksgiving Books & Crafts

Today I am going to share an easy Thanksgiving craft and several great Thanksgiving books we have been enjoying. We will start with the books. 

Thanksgiving Books and Being Thankful!

Congratulations to Rebecca P. for winning the Snowman and the Snowdog DVD! 

This year we discovered a great book that really helps hit home the whole Moms Fighting Hunger. Since Thanksgiving is so much about food around here, it is the perfect time to think about giving to those who do not have enough to eat. The book is The Can-Do Thanksgiving by Marion Hess Pomeranc. The story is about a class who does a can food drive and one little girl wants to know where her can will end up, so she writes her name and the school name on a label on it. The class gets invited to serve a Thanksgiving meal at a soup kitchen and the girl finds her can there. She also is able to save the day when the vegetable platter gets dropped on the floor. It is a great book about caring and sharing.

Hazel noticed the other day that the library was collecting food and asked about it. I told her that the library collects food for the local food pantry every November and December. If you bring in food for it, they forgive your overdue fines. Hazel wanted to bring some food to it, and since we were going to the grocery store I let her pick out some cans. Of course, I didn't take a picture of those, but I did buy some more to drop off there.

I hope you will join us in giving to those who are hungry this holiday season!


While on the topic of food, we did a quick corn craft. I am calling it our Thanksgiving Corn. I found it on Pinterest earlier today, but it comes from Highlights for Kids. I love how they do it for the Thanksgiving table, but we did it putting in things we are thankful for since we haven't done that yet this year. I also had Hazel use fingerprints to be the kernels since I knew she would not like drawing that many circles.

At Thanksgiving time we have fun reading books about Thanksgiving, turkeys and Native Americans. Here are some we have read and/or shared in the past:

 1) Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley
2) Gracias the Thanksgiving Turkey by Joy Cowley and Joe Cepeda (will be sharing about this one soon!)
3) 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey
4) Squanto and The First Thanksgiving by Joyce K.Kessell and Lisa Donze and here
5) A Child's Story of Thanksgiving by Laura J. Rader
6) Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano
7) The Very First Americans by Cara Ashrose
8) The Naragansett by William S. Simmons
9)  Native American Stories by Joseph Bruchac
10) Children of the Wind and Water by Stephen Krensky
11) Algonquian Indians by June Behrens and Pauline Brower
12) The Wampanoag by Laurie Weinstein-Farson
13) Crafts for Thanksgiving by Kathy Ross
14) Messner Holiday Library Thanksgiving Fun by Judith Hoffman Corwin
15) Holiday Handiworks by Gillian Souter
16) Thanksgiving Day Crafts by Arlene and Herbert Erlbach 
     and more crafts here

We also shared a round-up of our Thanksgiving crafts here in case you missed it!

Family Time--Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is many things to me. One of my favorite parts of the day is that I get to gather with most of my immediate family. (My sister and nephew that are in North Carolina usually do not join us for Thanksgiving.) As an important family time, I will not be doing much for a post today as I want to have as much time with my greatest blessing. I am very thankful for Steven and Hazel as well as my parents and sisters and nephew. I am thankful for all my wonderful friends who are always there when I need them. And I am very thankful for you, my followers. So as we take time today to stop our normally busy lives, I hope you will enjoy some time with your family--even if you are not celebrating Thanksgiving. 

If you are looking for ideas for Thanksgiving:

Check out my Thanksgiving Pinterest Board, my Native American/Squanto post, More Thanksgiving Books and a Simple Craft, my Cranberries post, my Thanksgiving Craft Round-up of Past and Present Crafts, and my Thanksgiving Book Round-up with a Craft. 

Also here are a few more Thanksgiving posts shared this week at Sharing Saturday!! (Yes, from how to roast a turkey to cutting practice and so many books and crafts!!) There are more wonderful posts shared there as well which are always so inspiring!! I hope you will stop by and check some out.

1) From Little Bins for Little Hands: Bear Says Thank Sensory Bin

2) From Gift of Curiosity: Books about Thanksgiving

3) From Robyn's View: Kitchen Basics 101: How To Roast a Turkey

4) From Green Owl Art: Doily Turkey 

5) From Mama to 5 Blessings: Paper Plate Pilgrims

6) From Makeovers and Motherhood: Thanksgiving Cutting Practice Sheets 

7) From Where Imagination Grows: Toilet Paper Roll Turkey Craft 

8) From We Made That: Thanksgiving Boat Craft

9) From We Made That: Pumpkin Pie Parfait

For those looking ahead to Christmas, I have started an Advent Pinterst Board.


An interesting article to read about America before Columbus can be found here (pdf download). You will learn much about Native American accomplishments and the "uncivilized" people as Columbus and the many people who came to the "New World" after him. It is very eye opening. Why am I mentioning Columbus on Thanksgiving? Because if it was not for his discovery of the "New World", the first Thanksgiving probably would not have happened. 

I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!! I hope you enjoy your family time!!

Thanksgiving Crafts & Games Past and Present

We did this fun and easy craft this year so far. We got the idea from Crafts for Thanksgiving by Kathy Ross.

 We changed the craft a bit because I wanted to put the corn on something stiffer than felt. I had these natural wood pieces and thought they would look nice and work well. Hazel had so much fun gluing on the Indian corn.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Today I thank God for having most of my family here together and keeping us all safe and healthy!

Hazel helping make the cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie for our feast!

Today in the United States we are celebrating Thanksgiving. This is the day to thank God for a good harvest and for all your other blessings. Supposedly it dates back to 1621 with the Pilgrims and some Wampanoag Native Americans. 

I shared some Thanksgiving books here, but we found another amazing one that I have to share! A Child's Story of Thanksgiving by Laura J. Rader is a great book that goes through the historical part of Thanksgiving including why the Pilgrims left England and Holland to the modern time of what is done. This is among my top two Thanksgiving books!

Since I am spending time with my family (and hosting/cooking) I will be busy so I am going to share with you some Thanksgiving Features from the last two Sharing Saturdays. Feel free to click on the picture to go to the Sharing Saturday where each was shared! I did a similar sharing last year if you want even more ideas!

1) From The Chirping Moms: Handprint Thanksgiving Shirts
2) From The Chirping Moms: No Bake Thanksgiving Cookies
3) From Grandparents Plus: 15+ Thanksgiving Games
4) From Waldorf By Me: Autumn Activity Round-Up
5) From The Chirping Moms: Turkey Snack
6) From Making Memories...One Fun Thing After Another: Turkey Cookies
7) From Repurpose My Life: Turkey Craft with Messages of Thanksgiving
8) From Momma's Fun World: Turkey Lantern

1) From Raise a Boy: Leaf Window Treatment
2) From Like Mama ~ Like Daughter: Thanksgiving at Playschool
3) From Making Memories...One Fun Thing After Another:  Turkey Cookies and More Turkey Cookies
4) From Making Boys Men: Autumn Masks
5) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: Eye'm Thankful  No Picture, but worth a visit!
5) From Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk: Mayflower Math and More
6) From Tippytoe Crafts: Thankful Turkeys
7) From Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom: Cranberry, Pomegranate Pineapple & Orange Sauce
8) From Diana Rambles: I Am Thankful for My Daughter Lunch

If you are still looking for some Thanksgiving Crafts and Activities here are some of ours from the past two years. 

Keepunumuk -- New Picture Book Written by Native Americans Sharing the Story of the First Thanksgiving

 

Disclosure: I was sent a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

It is hard to believe November is almost over and harder for me to believe that I have not shared any resources for Native American Heritage Month. It is one of my favorite heritage months! Although I do share various Native American books throughout the year, I almost always have something new for November! Today I get to share with you a wonderful new picture book written by Native Americans or First Peoples that share a Native American story of the first Thanksgiving based on stories from the Wampanoag. The book is Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry and Alexis Bunten and illustrated by Garry Meeches Sr. It is recommended for ages 3 to 7.

Thanksgiving Books & More Turkeys

Today I thank God for my creativity!

I am also looking for help in selecting the winner of the Best Halloween Costume Contest. Just visit and click like on your favorites!

Well this year for Halloween we gave away lollipops. Usually we go through 8-10 bags of candy, so I decided to go the inexpensive route this year. And of course we got about a quarter of the number we usually do, so we have lots of lollipops leftover. Luckily they are one of Hazel's favorite candies, however we are talking three large bags. So expect many lollipop crafts in the next few months. And today I will share our first one.

I bought these foam gourds at the Dollar Tree awhile ago for some craft I saw. Well, we made one up today. We stuck the lollipops in them for the turkey tails (and some in the back to get them to stay up) and then I hot glued the other shapes on and gave them eyes, beak, etc. Very easy.

We also have been enjoying some Thanksgiving books. So far we have read the following this year.

Thanksgiving on Plymouth Plantation by Diane Stanley is I think one of my favorites ever. The story is told by two children going to visit their grandmother. Their grandmother has a special hat that allows them to travel through time. This trip the girl picked going to visit an ancestor who was a pilgrim. They got to see what life was like in Plymouth Plantation and how the first Thanksgiving went. I loved this book because it gave information I did not know. For example, Squanto is not his real name, but the name the English called him. It is a great book to give a child the real view of life in colonial times.

'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey is an adorable story about eight children who go on a field trip to a turkey farm the day before Thanksgiving. They get to play with eight turkeys and all is well until someone asks the farmer about the ax they found. He tells them how he is going to kill the turkeys so they can be roasted for Thanksgiving dinner. The children become upset that their friends are going to be eaten and they sneak them away. That year the eight families have a turkey as a guest and have vegetarian Thanksgiving dinners.

Squanto and the First Thanksgiving by Joyce K. Kessel and Lisa Donze is a great story to learn more about Squanto. I always want to give the multicultural view to Hazel and being so close to Plymouth where their are demonstrations by Native Americans every Thanksgiving, I feel it is important for her to see both sides. To me the most amazing thing is that Squanto was willing to help the English after being enslaved by them twice, but he was. 

We have some more Thanksgiving stories to read and will share as we do. Enjoy!!

Crafty Weekend: Thanksgiving Activity Book

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

It is Halloween tonight, yet I am sharing a Thanksgiving book. I guess I am rushing into my holiday season. Sorry for the late start but we had an exciting night of trick-or-treating here. I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween. Today we are sharing a book that is perfect to help kids learn about Thanksgiving and keep them busy whether traveling or during a Thanksgiving celebration. The book is Thanksgiving Activity Book by Karl Jones and illustrated by Joey Chou. 

Thanksgiving and Sarah Josepha Hale

Have you entered my giveaway for 4 Christmas DVDs yet?

Have you ever heard of Sarah Josepha Hale? I know I hadn't, however I had heard and memorized something she wrote: "Mary Had a Little Lamb." Sarah Hale was an American author and editor. She was also a mother and wife and she is responsible for our national holiday--Thanksgiving. I know you are probably thinking what do you mean she is responsible for Thanksgiving, because that is what I was thinking when I saw this book at the library, but she is the reason we have a national holiday.

Sarah Hale By painted by James Reid Lambdin (1807-1889)
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

The Great Thanskgiving Escape -- Book Review

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Imagine a large family gathering. where you are a not a little kid and not a teenager, but in the middle. You are stuck in the room with the babies. Your only cousin close in age to you tells you it is time to make a break and go out to play on the swingset. Of course the journey to the swingset has many obstacles--the wall of butts, the hall of aunts (the type that squeeze your cheeks), the teenager zombies, etc. Then you finally make it to the back door to see it pouring. What are the cousins to do? Well make their own fun of course! This is the story of The Great Thanksgiving Escape by Mark Fearing. 

Thanksgiving Crafts, Books and Games

Well this morning we finished our centerpiece turkeys. We got the instructions from Messner Holiday Library Thanksgiving Fun by Judith Hoffman Corwin. It is a book I found at the public library. It had a few crafts I liked but not too many. These turkeys were very easy. You need a toilet paper roll, paper (I used card stock), newspaper and googly eyes and glue (and we used a piece of tape). You could also use paint on the toilet paper roll, but I took the lazy way out and covered it in paper. The toilet paper roll becomes the neck and head. You use a piece of paper rolled with the newspaper stuck inside for stability for the body and cut the tail feathers out of two different colors and add the wings. As you can see Hazel and I had different ideas where the wings should go. Neither of us chose the place the book suggested though Hazel's were closer. Mine are on the body instead of the tail.

Next we read The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri. I used Rachel's squirrel from I HEART CRAFTY THINGS (she shared it at our Sharing Saturday link party, which is still open if you want to share with us). She got the squirrel template from All Kids Network. We decided to gather the same food as the busy little squirrel. So we made a tree trunk for his home and added the food we saw him gather in the book, bird seed, acorns, apples, corn, and berries. The book starts with the leaves are falling so we also glued on some falling leaves. We used real bird seed, acorns and leaves, a Christmas tree ornament apple, and some fall decorations of miniature corn and fake berries.

The next thing we did is we talked about Thanksgiving. I made up some memory games for Thanksgiving. This time I did not put the clear contact paper on them since I don't think they will get played with enough to get that messed up and they are easy enough to make. Hazel is at the age where she doesn't really remember much about Thanksgiving from the past so I thought I could introduce her to the whole story using these cards. Then we could play with them and keep talking about it. I did this in Word and you can download it  Thanksgiving Story Match Game.  If you need another format, please let me know. It is easy to save it as a pdf as well.

I also made a Thanksgiving dinner game, so we could talk about the food she might see at the Thanksgiving table. I figured this might get her excited to try some of it even if she hasn't had it before or didn't like it before. Again I did this in Word and you can download it at Thanksgiving Dinner Match Game Again let me know if you need it in a different format.

To make the game I cut the cards out and cut cardstock into 3 inch by 4 inch rectangles and Hazel and I glue sticked the pictures onto the cardstock.

Happy Thanksgiving 2016 -- Reflections on Thanksgiving

Today I am spending time with my family. On the third Thursday of each November the United States takes a break from our busy lives to celebrate Thanksgiving. Most schools teach about the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Colony.  Many Native Americans see Thanksgiving as a day to mourn because of this. I can understand this view and see why it could be a day to mourn for the groups of people who were so brutally oppressed and had their land and in many cases lives taken away from them. However I like to think about Thanksgiving as a day where my family stops our busyness and takes time to thank God for our blessings. It is a time where we get to gather with the people we love and enjoy some quality time together. My family has the traditional turkey meal with stuffing and potatoes and vegetables and homemade cranberry sauce (Hazel and I always make it). We try hard not to have too much food so that we can actually just enjoy the meal and company. So as much as I understand what Thanksgiving means to Native Americans I think most families in America do not think about the first Thanksgiving all that much as part of the meal or at least I hope they do. I see it as a time for family and God. How do you see it?

 Our guests are greeted by our colorful turkey on our door this year. Hazel and I put this turkey together from a Paper Source kit. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! I am thankful for each of you as a reader of Crafty Moms Share!!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Today I thought I would share some of my thoughts. This year we celebrated Thanksgiving with a Sunday Brunch the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I attended a family wedding on Saturday, and we figured we would celebrate as a family while I was there so I wouldn't have to make the drive again. I have to say it felt so good to realize that I had a week without any real demands or plans. I feel like I am able to relax this week and it is wonderful! I bought some premarinaded turkey tips to have with some mashed potatoes and stuffing. However, Hazel is eating at a friend's house so it may just be Steve and myself. 

I have been reflecting on how grateful I am for my blessings. I am very happy that Hazel seems very happy with her school and social life. I am happy we realized something was wrong with our little kitty, Fidget, and got him to the animal hospital in time for the threads to be removed without having damage. I am grateful for my job, my family and our pets. There are so many things to be grateful for in my life. As I was thinking about the holiday, I always wonder why we bring it back to the pilgrims and Native Americans of Plymouth. At the time there were other colonists on the East coast, so the pilgrims were not the first Europeans in these parts. 

Sarah Josepha Hale is the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving still. She was a devout Christian and thought the entire country should celebrate Thanksgiving as one. Some states had their own Thanksgiving days previously. Although she was from New England, I wonder if she truly meant Thanksgiving to be a day to remember the myth of the pilgrims and Wampanoag celebrating back in 1600s. I also wonder why we focus so much on Plymouth. At the time there were other colonies already in the United States. The Mayflower itself was off course for where it was to land in America. One of the big things the pilgrims did was establish the Mayflower Compact which carried over to setting up the government of the United States many years later. I truly believe the idea of Thanksgiving should not be about remembering the history that has been distorted over the years, but rather a time to reflect on what each of us is thankful for this year. It is a time to gather with family and friends and enjoy each other's company. It is a time to personally reflect on your own gratitude. Whether you are religious or not, it does not matter as each of us has something to be thankful for. 

So I hope today you will take time to reflect on your own life and consider giving thanks for all the blessings in it. With a day to myself, I know I will be doing just that.

I know that I am grateful for my family and friends, my job, our pets, our lives,... I am also thankful for my inner peace that I have found lately, and the friendships Hazel has. There are so many wonderful things to be thankful for and it is so important for us to remember them and give them thanks! Over the years I have shared many books, crafts, and fun facts related to Thanksgiving in case you are looking for something to do today. 

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a quick post to wish all who are celebrating a very Happy Thanksgiving!! I hope everyone enjoys time with their family today and takes time to give thanks for all we have. In the spirit of Thanksgiving I thought I would feature a few of the Thanksgiving crafts that were shared this past week and a few of my own. Enjoy!!