• Kids can create fun crafts to complement the Thanksgiving dinner.thanksgiving dinner image by Richard Amidon III from Fotolia.com
  
  Thanksgiving is a time for gratitude, family and fun. You can help kids enjoy and remember the holiday by creating some Thanksgiving crafts with them. Although most Thanksgiving crafts center around the turkey, others reflect various aspects of the holiday that kids can relate to. For example, you can make placecards to show your guests their seating arrangements, favors to give out after the feast or even costumes for the kids to wear at the meal.
  
  

Native American Headdresses

• Young children, such as toddlers and preschoolers, are often enthralled by the idea of dressing like the people who made the original Thanksgiving feast--- especially the Native Americans. You can help them make their own Native American headdresses with a few simple materials. Wrap a strip of construction paper around your child's head so that it fits comfortably and tape it. Then provide your child with feathers in many colors and encourage him to glue them all around the strip so that they poke upwards. When the glue dries, your child can don his headdress at the Thanksgiving table.
  
  

Paper Plate Turkey

• If you're looking for decorations for your Thanksgiving meal, your child can make a fun turkey craft to hang on the wall. Just let your child paint a paper plate brown for the turkey's body. While it's drying, help your child cut out large feather shapes from various colors of construction paper. Your child can then tape the feathers to the back of the brown plate as the turkey's tail. Provide your child with googly eyes, orange construction paper for the turkey's beak and pipe cleaners to make the turkey's feet. Let your child get creative by adding more accessories to your turkey's ensemble. Display the turkey prominently so that everyone can see him during the Thanksgiving feast.
  
  

Cookie Cutter Placecards

• Placecards don't have to be difficult to make and kids can take part in individualizing each one. Show the kids how to use Thanksgiving cookie cutters to outline a basic Thanksgiving shape on a small, folded card. They can then color in the shape and write the person's name next to it. Alternatively, if you're using light-colored, thick paper napkins, kids can use the cookie cutters to trace the Thanksgiving shape on a napkin, along with the name of the person sitting at each place setting. If you do this, you may want to leave the folded napkins face-up on each plate so that the design and the name are easily visible.
  
  

Cornucopia Favors

• If you want to give out favors at the end of the Thanksgiving feast, consider giving out tiny cornucopias. To do this, make salt dough with kids (see Resources) and allow them to shape the dough so that it resembles small fruits or other foods. When the dough dries, fill a small plastic bag with several of the shapes. Then cut about an inch off the wide end off a sugar ice-cream cone and press the remaining cone into the bag, so that it looks like the tiny clay foods are falling out of it. Tie the end of the bag with a ribbon, and present one to each guest.