DLTK's Holiday Crafts for Kids
Thanksgiving Crown or Hat

A simple construction paper 'hat' the kids have fun making, decorating and wearing! We like making tissue paper flowers to decorate it, but you can use markers, stickers, glitter or gel pens instead.

Materials:

brown, orange, yellow or red construction paper
2 pipe cleaners
pencil
scissors
tape
printer
paper

tissue paper (we used orange, yellow and red -- but you can use any combination of autumn colors you like)
thread (we used brown)
Optional: stickers, markers, glitter or gel pens to decorate

Instructions:

Print template of choice
Color as necessary (if using the B&W version).
Cut out the template pieces
OR freehand cut 4 thanksgiving shapes from construction paper.
Cut 2 or 3 strips of construction paper about 4" wide and as long as you can make them
Tape the pieces end to end to make a really long piece.
Wrap around the child's head to measure how long you need and trim off the excess (don't tape into a circle yet).
Make 5 or 6 tissue paper flowers and tape to the front of the crown:
- stack 3 or 4 squares of tissue paper on top of each other (size should be about 4"x4")
- fan fold (accordion fold) the tissue paper
- tie tightly in the center with a piece of thread
- separate the layers one at a time
- roll a piece of scotch tape to attach the flower to the front of the crown (long construction paper strip)

Wrap the pipecleaner around a pencil to make a 'spring' with it. An adult can wrap the first couple loops and then hand it over to the child to finish.
Straighten about 1/2 inch of the top and bottom of the spring (so it's easier to do the taping).
Repeat with the other pipecleaner.

Tape a turkey onto the top of each pipecleaner. Flip over and glue or tape the 3rd and 4th skull or bat onto the back of the 1st and 2nd (to sandwich the pipecleaner in between the turkeys).
Tape both pipecleaners to the long piece of construction paper so they either sit at the front of the head or the sides of the head.
Tape the construction paper ends together to form a crown and put it on!

Templates:

After printing, close the template window to return to the main page.
If the template doesn’t fit on one page, adjust your printer margins:
• In most browsers: Print → More settings → Margins → Minimum
• Or use Page Setup / Printer Setup in your printer dialog

Materials:

Instructions:

Templates:

Template (color) or (B&W)