I know it’s only the second day of November, but maybe you’re anticipating a long, nervous election night. Or maybe you are just really excited about gathering with family and friends (and soon-to-be vaccinated 5-11 year-olds!) for Thanksgiving. Or maybe you just have a lot of pine cones.
If any of the following apply to you, we have a fun, easy project that we thought up on a walk: turkey place cards. If you wait until actual Thanksgiving week to make them, you won’t have time. Make them now and enjoy them, or distract yourself from something stressful!
You’ll need:
-Glue or hot glue
-Scissors
-Pine cones
-Turkey tail mushrooms*
-Paper bags and white paper
-Markers
-small sticks
1. First, gather your supplies. The hardest part is probably finding the turkey tail mushrooms, but if you’re near some woods, that shouldn’t be too tricky. Look for decomposing fallen logs and you’ll probably see them: thin, leathery mushrooms that are often brown and white, like turkey tails.
*Turkey tail mushrooms are not exactly edible (too tough), but they have long been brewed in an immune-boosting tea in Traditional Chinese Medicine. I am not confident in identifying turkey tails—and in fact I think the ones we found were false turkey tails, but they look a lot like turkey feathers too! Gather a bunch, plus some pine cones and sticks.
2. Make your turkey by gluing mushrooms around the pointy end of the pine cone. You may need to cut the mushrooms with scissors to get them to fit. Glue a stick to the wider, stem end of the pine cone for the turkey’s neck.
3. Draw a smallish circle for the turkey’s head on cardboard or brown paper. We used the back side of a graham cracker box. Draw two circles for the eyes, and make crazy eyeballs. Give the turkey a red wattle. Cut all of this out and glue it to the stick.
4. Make a ribbon of brown paper from a paper bag, and write each guest’s name on it. The ribbon can be vertical or horizontal depending on the vision for your table. To make paper look fancier (like a ribbon), we just notch the ends. Glue your turkey to your ribbon.
And… Voilà! We think sitting down to a place card makes guests feel extra special. And it’s something kids can do to help get ready!
Let’s hope the worst turkeys don’t win this election in Virginia. Happy election day, and thank you to all the poll workers and volunteers, like Mamie and Cousin Barbara, out in the chilly Virginia rain this morning!
P.S. Here are the girls in their finished Halloween costumes: