Thanksgiving Place Mats

• Kids can make place mats for all of the children and grown ups. You'll need a roll of wax paper. Cut two pieces of equal-size wax paper per place mat. A good size would be two feet long and whatever width the roll is. Give kids construction paper and safety scissors. They should draw small turkeys, leaves, and pumpkins then cut them out. Let each child arrange the cutouts on one of the pieces of wax paper. Then give kids crayons in seasonal colors like orange, yellow, and red. Remove the paper off the crayons. Use a potato peeler to peel crayon shavings from the crayon stick. Sprinkle the shavings all over the place mats. Place the other piece of wax paper on top. Move the whole thing to an ironing board that has a towel on top. Use an iron on low heat to bond the two pieces together. The wax paper and crayons will melt together to make a Thanksgiving place mat. Make as many as you need for dinner guests. The place mats make wonderful take-home keepsakes for kids.
  
  

Glass Jewelry

• Use easy-to-make drinking-glass decorations to dress up a Thanksgiving dinner table with style. First you will need to buy a pack of brightly colored straws. Have kids tie two straws together. Using their safety scissors, show them how to cut the straw to make little festive pom poms. Trim the straw down to about three inches in length. Slide scissors up the straw ends and make lots of slits in them. On the day of the dinner, have children drop the pom poms into the glasses before supper. These make pretty, unexpected decorations.
  
  Another drinking-glass idea is made with stretch nylon cord and plastic beads. Children could spell each guest's first name out in beads. Then string them individually into small necklaces that fit around the glass or the glass stem.
  
  

Napkin Rings

• Napkin rings are easy decorations for all children to make, even little ones. Cut construction paper into strips about two inches wide and six inches long. Have little ones draw Thanksgiving scenes or greetings on the strips. Wrap the construction paper around the Thanksgiving napkins and glue them in place with a glue stick.