In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated the fourth Thursday of November.
Thanksgiving is a good time to make a cornucopia – but what is a cornucopia?

Materials needed:

• Pictures of cornucopias
• Cone-shaped paper cups and brown crayons or brown construction paper
• Scissors
• Stapler
• Craft glue
• 9” x 6” blue or green construction paper
• Cotton balls
• Seed catalogs or magazines with food pictures

What to do:

1. Show pictures of cornucopias. If it is possible, show your children a real cornucopia. Let the children guess what a cornucopia is used for.
2. Explain that a cornucopia is an ancient symbol for abundance. This is why it has become a symbol for Thanksgiving, a day set aside for giving thanks for abundance.
3. If you have cone-shaped paper cups let the children color them brown with crayons. If you don’t have cone-shaped cups, cut out 8” circles from the brown construction paper for each child. Cut the circle in half then roll it into a cone and staple.
4. Glue or staple the cone onto the blue or green paper.
5. Glue cotton balls inside the cone to help it hold its shape and for a base to glue the pictures of food.
6. Cover the cotton balls with pictures of food cut from catalogs, magazines and the food sale sections from the newspaper… let some of the pictures spill out onto the base paper.

You can all sing the following song to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”
• If you’re thankful and you know it, clap your hands.
• If you’re thankful and you know it, clap your hands.
• If you’re thankful and you know it, then your face will surely show it.
• If you’re thankful and you know it, clap your hands.


Books to enjoy about Thanksgiving –
Happy Thanksgiving, Biscuit!, by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
My First Thanksgiving, by Tomie dePaola
Thanksgiving Is for Giving Thanks (Reading Railroad), by Margaret Sutherland