Easy Thanksgiving Placemat Craft

If you're looking for something easy for the kids to do on Thanksgiving Day, why not let them help decorate your table with these fun Thanksgiving placemats?

Since we are having lots of children here for Thanksgiving, we thought it would be fun to let them make their own placemats for the kids' table.  It will make a cute addition to the paper pumpkins we made yesterday for centerpieces.

Here's what you need:  Fall colored construction paper (don't mind my Christmas colors here), scissors, a ruler, and glue.

Cut one inch strips of paper lengthwise for weaving, and one inch vertical slits on your background paper.  Older kids can cut on their own, but for our younger kids, we'll have these pre-cut.  Be careful to leave about a one inch border at the top and bottom as shown here....you don't want to cut all the way or you'll have more strips. :)

Simply weave the strips of paper under and over each slit, incorporating your different colors for each row.  Once all the strips are in, use glue to fasten down the ends of the strips. 

While my mom was here in March for the birth of Amelia, she taught the kids how to make these (hi Mom!).  They're looking forward to making them again on Thursday!

Once the kids are done constructing their mats, let them be creative and decorate with markers, crayons, stickers, glitter glue, etc.   They can even write "Give Thanks" like shown above, or write things for which they are thankful around the border.  And if you happen to have a laminating machine, these would be great to preserve that way!

It's fun, it's easy, and will keep them busy while you're working hard in the kitchen! :)