Thanksgiving Therapy Activities: Dinner Plate Craft

Rough, smooth, fluffy, bumpy. Do your kids use these types of words to describe objects to you?  Here’s a fun Thanksgiving sensory craft to give kids exposure to descriptive language using their sense of touch and sight.

The more you appeal to the senses, the more memory and value a child will take away from the experience. Plus, this activity will give the small muscles of the hand a tremendous workout. Turkey, anyone?

Check out a video tutorial for how to make this Thanksgiving craft!

WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

-Paper plate
-Glue
-Scissors
-Cotton balls
-Brown felt square
-2-3 green crayons
-Orange construction paper
-Dried stuffing cubes
-Yellow Magic Nuudles
-Any other alternative texture ideas listed below

What to Do:

Let your child know they are going to help you make a Thanksgiving feast! Hand him a paper plate and get started building their “meal.”

Drumstick: Have a felt template ready with an outline of a turkey drumstick. Allow your child to use scissors to cut out his drumstick and glue it onto his plate. If you child is not using scissors yet, then let him tear out a piece of brown construction paper as his drumstick. No worries about the shape! Alternative texture ideas for the drumstick are sandpaper or a sheet of textured scrapbook paper.

Mashed Potatoes: Allow your child to tear apart several cotton balls using his fingers so the cotton looks and feels fluffy. Glue the “mashed potatoes” onto the plate. Alternative texture ideas for making mashed potatoes are shaving cream or a bunch of crumpled up tissues or toilet paper.

Green Beans: Allow your child to tear paper off of a few green crayons and then break the smooth crayons into pieces. Glue the “green beans” onto the plate. Alternative texture ideas for green beans are snips of green yarn, green pipe cleaners, or rolled green play dough.

Sweet Potatoes: Provide your child with a piece of orange construction paper. Have him crumble the paper into a small ball using two hands. Glue the “sweet potatoes” onto the plate.  An alternative texture idea would be a bunch of orange pompoms.

Stuffing: Allow your child to glue several pieces of dried crunchy stuffing to his plate. Alternative texture idea for stuffing is several small brown legos.

Corn: Allow your child to tear pieces of yellow Magic Nuudles into several small pieces using their fingers. Glue your “squishy” corn onto the plate. Alternative texture idea for corn is tiny balls of yellow playdough.

How to Change it Up:

-Use this as an opportunity to let your child show you how he wants his REAL Thanksgiving dinner to be served. Allow him to add a lot of the foods he enjoys eating and a little bit of foods he doesn’t like as much.

-After the plate is complete, have your child go back through and touch each food again, this time telling you how it feels in his own descriptive words.

-If your family’s Thanksgiving meal looks different that this traditional version, change it up! Get creative!

Skill Areas Addressed:

Bilateral coordination, fine motor skills, coordination, grasp, prewriting skills, sensory integration, visual motor integration

Looking for more great activities for kids?  Try these!

Holiday Gift Guide: Toys to Promote Sensory SkillsWhat Does “Sensory” Really Mean?Move to the Menu Gross Motor Activities