🍁Activities 2 keep the kiddos busy this week and on Thanksgiving Day!

The kids are home from school this week.  They may also be off from their regular activities this week and they're now stuck at home bored.  You may also have some other young visitors coming over for the Thanksgiving holiday and need some ideas to keep them entertained while the grown ups cook and catch up on life.  Here are a few activities you can do with your kids this week and on Thanksgiving day that will keep their brains and bodies working and maybe off their phones/tablets for a bit ❤️.  All of these things can be made with simple things you can find around the house or can get at the dollar store, Wal Mart or Target for just a few dollars.

This one was my 3 year old's favorite activity so far. I just used an old water bottle and cut the top off to make the opening a little bigger.  I used brown paper to make a turkey shape for the front of the bottle and made colorful feathers to add to the back of the bottle.  I just used construction paper for this.  I drew eyes and a beak on the turkey body and then used tape to add the body and the feathers to the bottle.  I picked up a bunch of poms poms from Target also and just used my kitchen tongs for her to use to grab the poms poms with to feed the turkey. In hindsight, I'm thinking a smaller tongs may have been easier for her to use 🙊.

This activity is so much fun for the younger kids but the older kids can help make it and may even enjoy playing with it with the little ones.  It also smells so good!  Make sure to let the kids know that it isn't something they should eat!  I happened to have ginger bread men cookie cutters and little plastic cutting tools to give to my kiddo to use to play with.  You could also add cinnamon sticks, coffee beans, rocks, pine cones, dried corn etc.  Be creative and use what you have on hand at home or can maybe find outside.  

To make it you will need:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 4 tbsp cream of tarter
• 2tbsp canola or vegetable oil
• 1 cup salt
• 2 cups water
• 2-3 tbsp cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients in a sauce pan and heat on medium heat until the ingredients start to come together into a play dough consistency.  This should only take 3-5 minutes.  Once it turns into a dough, turn the heat off and wait a few minutes until it cools before taking it out of the sauce pan.  

This one is an easy one and can evoke some conversation among your guests of all ages.  I just found a glass jar in my home, Tied a bow to the top, printed out the questions, folded them up, and threw them in the jar.  You can add some of your own if you'd like.  

Would you rather eat Turkey or Pizza for Thanksgiving?

Would you rather eat an entire pumpkin pie or a gallon of cranberry sauce?

Would you rather swim in a pool of gravy or a pool of apple cider?

Would you rather eat a pound of raw green beans or a pound of raw pumpkins?

Would you rather have to catch a live turkey using only your bare hands or empty the insides of a 50 lb pumpkin?

Would you rather be someone who sings on a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade float or be someone who helps to hold onto one of the giant character balloons?

Would you rather spend Thanksgiving weekend without football or without shopping?

Would you rather go to school wearing a pumpkin stem on your head or turkey feathers on a your butt?

Would you rather go for a week with only gobbling like a turkey or only talking with your mouth full?

Would you rather go to school dressed as a turkey or dressed as an apple pie?

Would you rather be Charlie Brown or Snoopy?

Would you rather eat only turkey or only mashed potatoes and gravy for an entire month?

Would you rather eat a raw onion or a clove of garlic?

Would you rather be able to say, "Happy Thanksgiving" in every language in the world or know the answer to 500 Trivial Pursuit questions?

Would you rather have hair that gets in your mouth every time you eat or be totally bald?

Would you rather sing the National Anthem for one of this weekend's football games or be one of the commentators?

Would you rather be covered in mashed potatoes or green bean casserole?

This one is a fun group game.  I found the colorful clothes pins at Target and all I had to do was make some beaks from orange construction paper, glue them one the clothespins and use a sharpie to make eyes.

For the game, the goal is to be the last person standing with at least one turkey pin still on. To start, each player can stick their 3 clothespins anywhere on their clothing that they want. Once everyone is ready, you can have them spread out and pick beginning positions for the tag game that is about to ensue.
 
Each player tries to remove the other players’ turkey pins without losing their own. Once a player has grabbed a turkey pin off of someone else, they can just drop it in the grass. If it’s the last (third) pin of that particularly player to be removed, they are out. 

This is a great game for keeping the kids active and having fun!

This is just a fun way to test everyone's knowledge about Turkey Day.  You can put these questions on index cards if you'd like or just read them straight from this article.  Totally up to you.

Questions:

1. Name three food items they actually feasted on at the first thanksgiving:

2. Thanksgiving is not just an american holiday. what other country celebrates it too?

3. How large is the largest pumpkin pie ever baked?

4. What president declared thanksgiving a national holiday?

5. Where do turkeys sleep?

6. How fast can a turkey run? fly?

7. Who wanted to change the national bird to be a turkey?

8. What is the skin dangling from a turkey called?

9. What are male turkeys called?

10. What are female turkeys called?

11. What was the first meal on the moon?

12. Can all turkeys fly?

13. When is national turkey lovers month?

14. How much does a male turkey weigh on average?

15. How much does a female turkey weigh on average?

16. What is a baby turkey called?

Answers:

1. They most likely ate stewed mix of corn, roots, beans, squash and various meats. Plus the easy-to-gather local food: clams, lobsters, cod, eels, onions, turnips and greens from spinach to chard.

2. Canadians celebrate it too. Except they celebrate thanksgiving the second monday in october.

3. The largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds and measured just over 12 feet long. It included 900 pounds of pumpkin, 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 155 dozen eggs, 300 pounds of sugar, 3.5 pounds of salt, 7 pounds of cinnamon, 2 pounds of pumpkin spice and 250 pounds of crust.

4. In 1863, during the civil war President abraham lincoln declared thanksgiving a national holiday.

5. Turkeys spend their nights in the trees. At sunsets they head to their “roosts”.

6. Turkeys can run as fast as 20mph. They can also burst into flight going close to 50 mph.

7.  Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird to be a turkey.

8.  That skin is called a “wattle”.

9.  A male turkey is called a “tom” and they are actually the only ones that “gobble”.

10.  Female turkeys are called “hens” and they don’t “gobble”. Female turkeys “cackle” instead.

11.  When Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin sat down to eat their first meal on the moon, their foil food packets contained roasted turkey and all of the trimmings.

12.  Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys can fly for short distances.

13. National turkey lover’s month is in June.

14.  16 to 22 lbs

15.  8-12 lbs

16.  They are called Poults & they eat berries, seeds and insects, while adults have a more varied diet that can include acorns and even small reptiles.

That's all I've got but hopefully at least one of these activities help to fill any idle time you may have at home with your kids and maybe liven up your Thanksgiving day.  Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving 🦃!

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