Ask A Los Angeles Expert: Thanksgiving Crafts For Kids
With a career made out of fun and games, Marissa Edwards believes in having fun with a purpose. As the Director of All Things Fun at Terranea Resort, Edwards combines her love of adventure with an appreciation for the environment by creating interactive children's and family programs that promise loads of fun, create memories for a lifetime and teach kids how to live consciously. She oversees the resort's Tide Pool Kids Club and Pointe Discovery Activity Center and is the mastermind behind Terranea Traditions, an annual holiday celebration that starts in November with holiday activities for kids such as Thankful Crafting.
Marissa Edwards
Terranea Resort
100 Terranea Way
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
(310) 265-2800
www.terranea.com
In the spirit of gratitude for the environment, kids create Thanksgiving crafts out of recycled materials and items found within the resort's natural habitat. This holiday activity teaches kids how to reduce, reuse and recycle through arts and crafts. Here are five recycled Thanksgiving crafts ideas you can use at home with your kids.
Not every memory keepsake fits in a photo album, especially when it comes to outdoor adventures. Create your own memory box using an old shoe box that you can decorate with sand for glitter and shells for trimming. During Thankful Crafting at Terranea, kids play Nature Bingo on the resort's Discovery Trail. Along the way, they collect rocks, leaves and other mementos they can store or use to make their nature trail memory boxes.
You don't need to buy a picture frame when you can make your very own. Start off with a little story time while indulging in tasty popsicle treats. Give your popsicle sticks a good rinse and use them to create the base for a nature frame. Add a family photo and decorate your new frame with dried flowers, decorative sea shells and pretty little pebbles for trimming.
You don't need expensive decorations to make this Thanksgiving a festive one. Dress up the dinner table using recycled water or soda bottles. Cut off the tops and cover the outside around with paper mache in your favorite fall colors to make useful table decor. Use them as vases for flowers, or to hold napkins and utensils for buffet-style dinners.
Related: Best Places for Take-Out Thanksgiving Dinner in Los Angeles
Along the nature trails of Terranea, there's no shortage of plants and leaves to use for one's creative expressions. They make for the easiest arts and crafts projects. Collect whatever catches your eye and use them as rubbing plates. Place your favorite plants under a piece of paper and rub over them with a color of your choosing. Slap a "Happy Holidays" on the front and you've got yourself a homemade Thanksgiving card.
Cherish the gift of sound by adding a little music to your Thanksgiving festivities. Kids can create their own percussion instrument using an empty paper towel roll filled with rice. Cover the ends with wax paper and secure each side with rubber bands to keep the pebbles from falling out. Now your Thanksgiving is complete with some live entertainment.
Related: Unique DIY Centerpieces For Your Thanksgiving Feast
