Easy Thanksgiving Day Craft: Make a Decorative Banner or Sign
In cooperation with Mom’s BreakThanksgiving Free Printables, here’s an idea for a colorful and festive Thanksgiving Day decoration that is a great craft for young kids! It doesn't involve the use of scissors or anything that is sharp. It isn't messy and kids can have fun doing this craft unsupervised. Of course, anyone can enjoy doing this craft---and using these basic instructions to be creative and come up with different ways to use these free printables.
Accompanying this article, get illustrated instructions for this craft at: http://www.jansfreecontent.com/printables/tdaybanner.doc. This Word document opens in a new window. These instructions contain several pictures, so it might take several (long) seconds for the page to open. Once the page does open, allow a few extra second for all the pictures to appear. These instructions also include a brief tutorial for how to access the free printables, which can be found at: http://www.momsbreak.com/thanksgiving_printable/Freebie-Thanksgiving-Sign.html
You'll need: the free printable letters provided by Mom's Break; Colored construction paper; Glue stick; String or twine; Hole punch (optional, see illustrated instructions); Pushpins.
Print the letters that spell out Happy Thanksgiving. You might want to be sure to set your printer to a better print quality so that the colors of the letters are nice and vibrant (see the illustrations for help with this if you are unsure about changing your printer settings).
Suggested Method for Making Banner
Measure a sufficiently long piece of string or twine. You'll have to allow enough length for each letter, some space in between each letter, and then a length on each end to hang the banner. Because this banner will be fairly long, you should hang it as two banners: Happy as one banner, and Thanksgiving as the second banner. Use this calculation to gauge how long your string or twine should be:
Actual letters, each 8.5 inches wide: 17 Letters X 8.5 inches = 144.5 inches
Allow 2 inches between each letter: 15 spaces X 2 inches = 30 inches
Allow 8 inches at each end to hang each of the banners: 4 ends X 8 inches = 32 inches
Total Length of String/Twine to Hang Banner: 144.5 + 30 + 32 = 206.5 inches/12 inches = 17.5 feet.
For the “Happy” banner, use 5.5 feet of string/twine. For the “Thanksgiving” banner, use the remaining 12 feet.
Using a glue stick, mount the letters on construction paper so that at least 3 inches of construction paper appear at the top of the letter (see the illustrated instructions).
Use the pushpins to hang the banners. You might need to use a few pushpins in between the letters to help hang the banner.
You can hang the banner letters by the corners of the paper, and use less string/twine. This method will require you to punch holes in the letters (see the illustrated instructions). Measure string/twine accordingly to hang the banner.
This is a good craft to keep the kids busy while you are getting ready for a wonderful Thanksgiving Day meal!
Jan K., The Proofer is a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. Visit Jan’s Portal (http://www.jansportal.com) for more information about Jan's free crafts, recipes, tutorials, other resource sites, and free content articles, as well as Jan’s business services. Be sure to visit Mom's Break (http://www.momsbreak.com/) for free printable crafts and projects. © Copyright 2005 to present. All rights reserved.