As most adults, you probably think of Thanksgiving as close to the perfect Holiday. All the joys of a cozy and intentional celebration without the stress of planning, buying and wrapping a ton of thoughtful presents. A day of cooking and hanging out with friends and family, followed by a hearty meal. But for most children the wait while the adults are cooking and preparing can seem long and boring, and planning a few activities in advance can help make the wait seem shorter and leave you with more time in the kitchen. This little DIY combines children’s love for experiments, playing with sculpting dough and the excitement of getting to decorate the Thanksgiving Table.

And since we’ve used Eco-Kids Veggie Sculpting Dough, you can be sure, that no toxins come in contact with your child’s sensitive skin or hang around your celebratory table. Here’s what you need:

Materials

• One pack of Eco-Kids Veggie Sculpting Dough
• Four small bowls for mixing the Dough
• A little water
• Four spoons
• A rolling pin
• A glass or bowl
• A protective table cover
• Optional: Cookie cutters, a knife and other tools you can use to shape and transform the dough (we use the opposite end of a small paint brush to create eyes in our creatures).

Start out by mixing the Veggie Sculpting Dough powder with water and be aware that this can easily become messy. Kids love to take part in this process and see how the colorless powder transform into a colorful sculpting dough.

Remember to add only a little bit of water at the time as you don’t want the dough to get too soft and sticky. Start out by mixing water and powder with a small spoon and switch to your fingers when it starts turning into an actual dough.

When the dough is well mixed, roll it into a ball and leave it to rest for a few minutes before you let you children play and create.

Now it is time to start creating the actual Thanksgiving Table Centerpiece. Depending on the size of your table, you’ll want to create at least one extra level. Roll out a piece of sculpting dough with a rolling pen, and use it to cover an upside down glass or bowl.

This will be the base of your centerpiece. As the Veggie Sculpting Dough is made entirely out of vegetables, there’s no need to be afraid of using your ordinary kitchen tools when working with the dough.

Now let your children create little sculptures of things associated to Thanksgiving and Autumn in general. We went for leaves, pumpkins and some turkey inspired birds.

Leaves can easily be done with a leaf cookiecutter or with a small easter egg cookie cutter. Use a knife or another thin tool to make little lines in the dough leaf. Stick them to the dough covering the glass or bowl to create a 3-dimensional decoration.

Pumpkins are equally easy to make and only require a bit of dough rolled into a ball and a contrasting color rolled into the shape of a stalk. When you want to attach the stalk to the pumpkin start out by poking a small hole in the pumpkin into which the end of the stalk goes. Use your knife or another sharp tool to create the lines in the pumpkin.

When creating bigger sculptures like animals or people, make sure your dough is dry enough to hold its shape and try and sculpt as much as possible out of one piece of dough. For our birds we kept the blue dough in one whole piece and attached only the beak.

When your children have made as many mini-sculptures as they like, all that is left is to place them all nicely together on the centerpiece, and you are set for festive dinner.