Here’s what we did:

Fall Flannel Board

I wanted to make sure that this program was for children of all ages. We have quite a few infants and toddlers that come into the library and interactive flannel boards are a great thing for them. I had a hard time thinking of a Thanksgiving related flannel board so I went with a standard fall one. The little ones loved putting the leaves on the trees and even throwing them into the air and watching them fall.

Fall Obstacle Course

Since our Halloween obstacle course was such a hit I went ahead and created a Fall one. I took over two nonfiction stacks and used streamers to create the obstacles. I also put 5 Thanksgiving and Fall related riddles that the children had to answer before they could keep going and I hide 5 feathers in books. Children of all ages enjoyed this, I even had some of the 12 year olds boys who play on the computer all afternoon join in on the fun.

Thanksgiving Memory Match Game

This was another game that was enjoyed by all ages. The little ones enjoyed flipping the cards over and looking at the pictures and the older kids enjoyed playing the actual game. I did end up losing some of the cards but they are simple enough to create. All you need to do is find clipart pictures, print them out and laminate them!

Thanksgiving Headband Craft

This was an easy and fun craft. I cut templates out of cardstock and had the children trace them onto the construction paper. The younger ones did it with the help of an adult but the older children had no trouble making the craft by themselves. These are great because they can be worn as a headband, put out as a decoration or you could even put a bowl of goodies inside of it!

Story & Song

 The only children interested in listening to a story were very young, 2 and under. I ended up going through the story and talking about the pictures with the kids, this worked really well with my group.

We Eat Turkey (Tune: Where is Thumbkin)

Next we sang a great repeat after me song, I sang the first line and I had them repeat it.

We eat turkey, we eat turkey
Yum, yum, yum
Yum, yum, yum
Always on Thanksgiving
Always on Thanksgiving
Yum, yum, yum
Yum, yum, yum
(repeat with mashed potatoes, corn, squash and pumpkin pie)

 

 

How it went: I had about 30 people attend the program but the majority of them just so happened to come into the library. Only 5 people came to the library with the intention of participating in the Thanksgiving Party. Overall I was happy with how the program turned out. It seems the best attendance we get is when we have no registration and they are drop in.