How to Teach Thanksgiving Art

Thanksgiving provides a great opportunity to teach kids lessons not only about the history of our country, but also about the feast-producing harvest and how to be thankful for all that we have. Teaching through art helps kids use their hands and imaginations to take these lessons to heart. It is also nice to see a finished project at the end of the day that the kids can take home and share with their family.

Things You'll Need

• Construction paper in assorted colors
• Scissors
• Glue
• Bubble Wrap
• Paint in assorted colors
• Felt
• Foam
• Grass clippings
• Twigs
• Pebbles
• Glitter

Instructions

1. 

   Pass around a few ears of indian corn as an example

   Create bubble wrap corn paintings. Explain to the students that fall is the time for harvest and Thanksgiving dinner is a celebration of the fall harvest and having enough food to share with friends and family. Cut the shape of corn on the cob out of yellow construction paper. Cut corn husks out of white or light brown construction paper. Give a corn cob cut out and two or three husks to each child. On paper plates dab orange, brown and red paint. Allow each child to press a piece of bubble wrap onto the paint and then press it onto the corn cob. This leaves a print of the bubble wrap that looks like corn kernels. As those dry, have the children use a paint brush to apply brown paint to the husks. Allow to dry and then glue the husks onto the top of the corn cobs.

2. Make a diorama. Have each student bring in a shoe box from home to use in making a diorama. Turn the box on it's side so that it acts as a stage. Give students a wide range of materials and ask them to create a Thanksgiving scene inside the box. Use a lot of natural materials to save money and to make the diorama look authentic. This may include small sticks. leaves, rocks, soil or grass clippings. Felt is nice to use for creating tepees and foam can be carved and painted to look like food. Modeling clay is very helpful for this project when making Native American figurines or pilgrims. Remind the students to use paint or construction paper to cover the sides of the box to create a backdrop. Give the students plenty of time. This project is best completed over several days. You may want to show examples of dioramas before beginning the project.

3. Be Thankful. One of the big Thanksgiving lessons is to give thanks. Have students list all of the things they are thankful for and then create "Thank you" certificates to hand out to the people to whom they are thankful. You can also have students use leftover school lunch milk containers to create blessing boxes. Simply use construction paper, glue, glitter, paint and so on, to decorate the box. Have the students fill the boxes with things from their lists that they are thankful for. Each morning, have the students pull out an object and read one thing that they are thankful for.

References

• No Time For Flash Cards: Lend Me Your Ear: Bubble Wrap Corn

Resources

• Kinderart
• Lesson Planet: Thanksgiving art lesson plans