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Native American Crafts for Kids

Native American crafts make a perfect Thanksgiving craft idea for kids. This Native Indian craft is made from a cardboard tube, some felt, feathers, beads and other colorful craft supplies. You can use simple earth tone colors to dress up your Native or use bright colors and feathers. No matter what you select your Native American Indian craft will be the best dressed for Thanksgiving dinner.

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Supplies

1 Toilet Paper Cardboard Tube
1 Piece of Tan Felt
1 Piece of Colored Felt (your choice)
Tan Paper
Feathers
Yarn
Beads
String
2 Brown Pipe Cleaners
Scissors
Hot Glue
Wiggle Eyes
Markers

How to Make a Native American Craft
Cardboard Tube Indian

Step 1

Cover the cardboard tube with tan felt using the hot glue. Cut off any excess felt in the back and on the top and bottom of the cardboard roll.

Step 2

Cut two vest shapes using the colored felt. Glue this on top of the tan felt but leave a slight opening as if the vest is opened.

Step 3

Take a brown pipe cleaner and cut it in half. Cut a length of the colored felt about 1 inch wide. Glue the pipe cleaner in the middle of the felt leaving a length hanging out from the end of the felt (this will be the hand).

Step 4

Cut several small lengths of yarn. Glue these to one edge of the felt about 3/4 of the way from the bottom (where the hand is) to the top.

Fold over the felt around the pipe cleaner and glue the two edges together. The fringe side (the yarn) will be the bottom of the arm when you assemble this Native American craft.

Step 5

Fold over the length of pipe cleaner hanging out from the end to form a hand. Repeat steps 3 - 5 for a second arm and two legs for your indian craft. Set the arms and legs aside for now.

Tip: If you want to put some mocassins on your craft, instead of folding of the pipe cleaner for feet, simply cut out two mocassin shapes using the tan felt. Then glue these to the pipe cleaner.

Step 6

Using the tan paper cut a strip about 2" wide and 3 to 4" long. Roll the paper and tape the ends together. Slide this inside the cardboard roll and secure in place with a dab of glue or tape.

Tip: The length needs to be long enough so that when you roll the paper it will fit snuggly inside the cardboard tube.

Step 7

Give your Native American Indian a face. Glue on two wiggle eyes on the tan paper. Then draw on a nose and mouth. Add some stripes on his face to dress him up for Thanksgiving dinner.

Step 8

Cut a length of the tan felt (or use tan ribbon) to go around the top of the indian's head. Decorate the felt with glitter glue or markers. This is the Native American's headband.

Step 9

Glue on some feathers to the headband. Create a small string of beads and glue these on to the side of the headband. If you want, decorate the vest as well with some beads and feathers.

Step 10

Now it's time to attach the arms and legs to your Native American craft. Using the hot glue, attach the arms to both sides of the indian. Bend and shape them however you want. We crossed his arms.

For the legs, you need to bend and shape them to sit cross legged in order for this guy to sit on a table. Attach the legs to both sides of the tube at the very bottom. Then criss-cross his legs bending the pipe cleaner.

Tip: Make sure the fringed portion of the legs and arms are facing downward before you glue these in place.

This Native American crafts idea is a bit more difficult than others. You will want adult supervision when using the glue gun. If you don't have felt you can always just use colored paper. With the paper you can use regular glue or tape to hold the pieces in place. If you use paper, then simply use a pipe cleaner only for the legs and arms and add fringe directly to the pipe cleaner.

In addition to this Native American crafts project, try all the Thanksgiving kids craft ideas.

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