A nice celebration, thatnext to the kite festivalAutumn is marked by Thanksgiving. It is usually celebrated at the beginning of October with beautiful decorations, crafts, delicious treats made from the harvested fruits and fun tractor rides. And of course people also like to celebrate in the daycare center. But what could you do for Thanksgiving in kindergarten? Are you an educator looking for Thanksgiving ideas for kindergarten? How about themed coloring games, finger games, stories, poems and crafts? We have collected a few suggestions for you that will guarantee fun at daycare!
Thanksgiving celebration in kindergarten - history of the festival in a performance
Before you celebrate something, you should of course also know why you are celebrating it. Explain to the little ones what the origin of the festival is. But since facts are not appropriate and boring for children of this age, you can do this in the form of an interesting story (for example, before a nap or sitting in a circle on the floor). If you want to go a step further, you can turn a Thanksgiving story into a small performance in kindergartenwith costumestransform in which the children take part.
The children usually cannot remember long sentences and monologues, so it is sufficient for you as the teacher to read the story and have the children dress up as the respective characters and act out the actions. For example, if there is a bread and a farmer in the story, one of the children plays the bread and another plays the farmer, and so on. Also decorate the room to suit the performance - a few small bales of straw or pumpkins here and there and fruit and leaves, for example.
Celebrate Thanksgiving in kindergarten with a finger game
Or how about setting the mood for Thanksgiving in kindergartenwith a finger playstimulate? Such games are a lot of fun for children and for this reason they learn them by heart pretty quickly! Below you can choose from three examples of a finger game for Thanksgiving in kindergarten - or why not all three?
Poem for Thanksgiving in Kindergarten – The Apple Tree
Thanksgiving with the mice
5 Finger
Learn to tell vegetables and fruits apart in a playful way
Find out how belowMake basketscan. On another day, you can use these fall baskets to teach the kids about fruits and vegetables. Can the children already tell them apart? For this you need two baskets per child or you can set up two baskets in the roomeveryone playsalternating with. Also prepare various fruits. These can be made from paper or felt, made from plastic and purchased, or simply painted on paper.
Place the fruits in a jumbled order in front of the baskets - one is for vegetables, the other for fruits. Now the children have to arrange them correctly - either each child individually or one after the other if you have only set up two baskets.
Crafts for Thanksgiving
In the fall, people usually do a lot of handicrafts anyway. This is almost a given in kindergarten because it ultimately promotes children's fine motor skills and imagination. Here are a few suitable for kindergartenThanksgiving craft ideasin kindergarten:
Fruit stamps
Potatoes as a stampYou've probably seen it before. However, it is not possible to tell from its print what kind of fruit it actually is. Instead, you can use fruits and vegetables that have a typical shape for Thanksgiving in kindergarten: apples and pears, for example. Cut it in half and dip the cut side in paint (or coat it with a brush). Then press them onto a piece of paper and the shape will be transferred. Then the children can paint on the remaining details such as stems and leaves. By the way, the shape of the apple is also suitable for stamping a pumpkin.
Pumpkin animals
The pumpkinistheRepresentative of all autumn fruits and therefore a popular motif for crafts. Bring decorative pumpkins with you to daycare or entrust the children's parents with the task and then make such cute animals for Thanksgiving in kindergarten, which can then decorate the kindergarten or be taken home.
You can make any forest animals by simply cutting the necessary elements from felt. Pipe cleaners can also be very helpful in some cases, as can googly eyes. Using a suitable craft glue, first glue the elements together as required and then glue them to the pumpkin.
Thanksgiving in kindergarten – making apples out of felt
With a stencil you can create fruitson felttransferred and then cut out and turned into magnets. Our example for Thanksgiving in kindergarten involves apples in different colors that have a clothespin as a stem, a leaf and a reflection of light. However, you can of course also choose other fruits.
- Stencil for the apple (template for printing at the end of the instructions)
- Felt in the desired apple colors as well as in white and dark green
- Mini clothespins
- Scissors
- Craft glue
- black Sharpie
- Magnetic stripe
- optional: zigzag scissors or even better for waves
Print and cut out the template and use it and a pencil to trace the apple shapes onto the felt. Do the same with the reflection shapes and leaves. Then cut out these shapes too. If you wish, you can cut a bite into one of the apples using wavy or zigzag scissors. Glue the small elements onto the apples and clip the clothespins where the stems usually are. If you want, you can also fix them with glue. Glue a piece of magnet to the back and your Thanksgiving craft in kindergarten is ready!
Grapes made from tissue paper
Crumple tissue paperin two different shades of purple into small balls and stick them on a paper plate in the shape of grapes. If you are working with particularly small kindergarten children, you can draw the target shape with a pencil beforehand so that the little ones only fill it in with the paper balls. Instead of paper, you can also use small pompoms or felt balls for the Thanksgiving craft project in kindergarten.
Crafting with scraps of paper in kindergarten for Thanksgiving
Alsowith scraps of paperyou can create typical autumn fruits. Use a round paper plate as a base and prepare scraps in the necessary colors. You are welcome to cut the paper plate into a different shape (e.g. pear shape) or use simple cardboard instead of a paper plate. After that it's just gluing. Perfect for kindergarten bullies and if you are looking for ideas for Thanksgiving in kindergarten.
Make or design your own autumn baskets
A very popular oneCraft idea for fallare also baskets. Does this remind you of Easter in any way? In principle, it's actually the same, except that you don't fill the Thanksgiving baskets in kindergarten with Easter eggs, but with homemade autumn fruits. And not only fruits and vegetables are suitable for this, but also nuts. Or how about the children being given the task of collecting acorns and chestnuts in advance and then using them to fill the baskets?
With your help, older kindergarten children can make their own autumn baskets out of cardboard. For this purpose you can use one of our manyEaster basket instructionsuse. Instead, smaller children could simply paint, glue or decorate finished baskets in any other way. In this case, it is of course best to use straw instead of Easter grass.
Make a tractor out of popsicle sticks
How laborious the harvest would be without the impressive tractors and other agricultural machinery... and children are absolutely fascinated by them. During Thanksgiving there are usually parades with beautifully decorated tractors and trailers that children can ride on. A perfect motif for Thanksgiving crafts in kindergarten! Popsicle sticks are the perfect basis for thisfor older kindergarten children. Instead, smaller ones can simply glue prefabricated paper elements onto a sheet of paper to form a tractor.
- Popsicle sticks (narrow and wide)
- Clothespins
- Glue
- Acrylic paints and brushes
- Scissors or circle punch (approx. 2.5 cm, 3.5 cm and 5 cm diameter)
- black, yellow and white or blue construction paper
- optional: template for a tractor
Somethe popsicle stickshave to be shortened, which is an unsuitable task for kindergarten children. Therefore, you should take care of this step for them in advance and have the materials ready for gluing. Take the clothespins apart. All you need is the wooden parts. Then cut out the tractor you chose and use it as a template. Arrange the narrower popsicle sticks on top and glue them together by also gluing popsicle sticks on the back opposite to the others. Make the tractor cabin out of clothespins. Once you have completed the tractor shape, the tractors can be painted.
While the paint is drying, the children cut out the remaining elements - two different sized circles of black paper for the tires, two smaller and also different sized yellow circles for the rims, a black exhaust and two elements for the window in blue or white . Glue them on or to the wooden tractor and you're done with this Thanksgiving craft idea in kindergarten!
Coloring pages for Thanksgiving in daycare
Finally, we have a few coloring pages for you that you can print out and distribute to the children. Of course, they reflect the theme of “Autumn” and “Thanksgiving” so that the children can learn everything about Thanksgiving in kindergartenrelaxing coloringcan end.
Tractor to print and color
Apple, grapes, pear and peach as coloring pages
