When you take the time to make Thanksgiving crafts with your kids you get to spend some special quality time together. You can also teach them some of the history and meaning of Thanksgiving while assembling a few interesting craft decorations for your home and Thanksgiving Dinner table.

Thanksgiving celebrations are a time to give thanks and be grateful for what we have. Following this theme, you could have your kids make a "thankful" turkey. You will need a few sheets of light cardboard or heavy paper, preferably in Fall colors such as red, orange, brown, and yellow.

Start by cutting a circle out of brown card. This will be the turkey's body. You decide how big you want it to be. Cut out a piece of card in a tear drop shape to make a head and beak, and glue it onto the top of the body. Also cut out a turkey's wattle from red card and attach it. Take some yellow card, and cut out and glue on some legs and feet to the bottom of the body. Have some creative fun adding some features and colors to give your turkey eyes, a beak and some character, using paints, crayons or marker pens.

Next, make a dozen or so feathers in an elongated oval shape cut out of the card. Use a variety of colors. Have your kids write on these feathers with a selection of the things that they are thankful for - one to each feather. This will get them thinking about Thanksgiving, and get some discussion going. Once all the feathers are filled in, glue them onto the body to make a fan as the turkey's tail, showing the messages. Hang up your "thankful" turkey for your Thanksgiving dinner guests to see and talk about with your kids.

Thanksgiving crafts for kids don't have to cost a lot of money. You could, for example, make a simple but impressive paper bag turkey to use as a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving dinner table. All you need are three brown paper bags - preferably two of the large grocery bags size, and one medium size - a pair of scissors, some newspaper, glue, a red balloon, some wiggly eyes from a craft shop, and a rubber band. A stapler may help as well.

To make the head, stuff a ball of newspaper in the bottom of the medium-sized bag. this will be the turkey's head. Twist the rest of the bag around to make a long, skinny turkey's neck. Shape out the head into a beak, and glue the wiggly eyes to the face. Make the turkey's wattle from the red balloon.

Stuff one of the large bags two thirds full with newspaper for the turkey's body. Close the bag off with a large rubber band. Lie the bag on it's side and cut a small hole through the the top an inch or so from the bottom, and insert the neck. Support the neck in place with the newspaper stuffing and some glue. From the remaining large bag, cut four large half-circles to be the turkey's tail feathers. Glue them in layers to the back of the body, perhaps with the help of a stapler. Apply some colorful paint, and your guests will be delighted with your child's turkey craft efforts.