This paper plate
cornucopia is a fun
child’s craft for
Thanksgiving! It is
a very festive
wall hanging for the upcoming holiday.
Children will
love making it. It
is very easy to do,
and it allows the children to learn about some of the typical
Thanksgiving
harvest foods by cutting out foods from the grocery store circular ads. This is a great school art
project. The
homework would be to collect photos of
fruits and vegetables for two weeks from magazines and newspapers. The teacher can then
discuss all the
different foods that were at the First Thanksgiving, and the children
can share
any special traditions his or her family has for their meal.
The
cornucopia is a symbol from mythology meaning "great abundance". In
mythology the horn was said to be from the goat Amalthaea.
Food
and drink coming from it flowed in great abundance, as if there was a
never-ending supply.

Things Needed:
- 4 paper plates (the cheap flimsy ones are the best)
- Brown
paint and paintbrush, available at: CrayolaStore.com
 - Scissors
- Newspaper
circulars from the grocery stores
- Stapler
(or just use strong glue)
- Glue
- Hole
punch (or just use scissors)
- Yarn,
ribbon, or cord for hanging
1. To
begin the paper plate cornucopia, take the four
paper plates and overlap them slightly, as shown below.
For the last paper plate beneath and to the
right, place it slightly higher than the others. 
2. Staple
the four
plates together (adults should help here).
One well-placed staple should do the trick. Or, you can glue or tape
the plates together.

3.
Using the
scissors cut out the cornucopia’s “tail” by cutting the very last plate
on the
bottom of the stack, the plate to the right.
See the picture below and use
this as a guide. Teachers,
if you are
doing this as a school project, you can always cut a bunch of the paper
plate
“tails” ahead of time. With
cheap paper
plates you can stack several and cut them at the same time.

4. Paint the entire
paper plate cornucopia brown, and it dry well.
 
5. Cut out fruits
and vegetable from the grocery store circulars.
You should have no problem finding lots of appropriate
veggies
that are on sale during the month of November.
Glue on the foods to the center plate of the cornucopia.

6.
Using a hole
punch or scissors, make two holes in the top of paper plate
cornucopia and thread yarn through these for hanging.  

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