The excitement of a big family get-together at the holidays might have kids bouncing around the house. These quick activities can help focus roving attention spans and settle rowdy energy.
Pea Sculptures
Hand children a package of frozen fees and round toothpicks. They stick the toothpicks into the peas and build upward, sideways, diagonally, etc. Budding engineers can create elaborate buildings or even entire scenes – complete with fencing and pea people.
Remove just a handful of peas at a time from the package so they remain frozen or near frozen while the structure is constructed (unfrozen peas are more delicate). Give children a paper plate to work on so the sculpture doesn’t sprawl and become hard to move. The peas will dry hard, holding the toothpicks in place.
Holiday Word Scramble
Write the word “Thanksgiving” at the top of a piece of paper. Children use any of the letters in the word, in any order, to list words hidden within the holiday’s name. Since the “t” appears once in the word “Thanksgiving” it can only be used once in each word listed – so “tank” is okay but “that” can’t be listed. The “i” and the “g” appear twice and so they can be used two times in each individual word.
Count up how many words are discovered. Once adults discover what is being done, they’ll be looking over the kids’ shoulders offering suggestions!
Hand-Churned Butter
Kids can work together to make butter that they can then share with the family at dinner. Put a pint of heavy cream, whipping cream, in a Mason jar or a similar sized container with a good cover. The container should be nearly, but not quite, half full of cream. Put on the lid and shake the jar back and forth.
Continuous shaking will cause the cream to thicken. When the cream becomes so thick that it doesn’t move as easily in the jar, spoon the soft butter into a small bowl. Set the bowl of butter into a larger bowl of ice. Smooth out the butter and allow the ice to cause it to harden or serve the soft butter on fresh baked cornbread, mashed potatoes, etc.
Walnut Boats
Ask an adult to crack open some walnuts, trying to get two equal halves. Clean out all the nut meat and push a bit of modeling clay into the bottom of the shell. Cut a small sail-shaped triangle from a piece of scrap paper and tape it to a toothpick. Press the toothpick mast into the clay. Now, set the boats into a sink, bowl, or bin of water and sail the boats.
Handprint Family
Kids decorate a tracing of their hands so each finger resembles a member of the family. With a pencil, trace the child’s hands onto a piece of paper. Use colored pencils to draw faces on each of the fingers to represent the members of the family. Make the middle finger the tallest person of the family. The little finger is good for young children.
Decorate the outlined fingers with hair and clothing to match what family members are wearing to the Thanksgiving gathering. If there are more people present, leave space on the page for more hand tracings. Try drawing one outline behind the illustrated fingers, creating a second “row.” If some fingers are blank, draw in family pets or even turn a thumb into a turkey.
Entertain children during a Thanksgiving gathering with pea sculptures, word games, hand drawings, churned butter, and even walnut boats.
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