Turkey Crafts and Activities

More Turkey Crafts and Activities

Turkey wreath
Buy a straw wreath and various Thanksgiving decorations, let your kids glue on the decorations to make a holiday wreath to hang on your front door.

Turkey cups
With the Thanksgiving family dinner coming soon, you’ll probably have a house full of kids, buy small kid-sized plastic cups and craft markers. Give each kid a cup and let them write their name on it and decorate it.

Turkey placemats
Give your kids colored construction paper and let them make turkeys. After they are finished, mount each turkey on a separate sheet of construction paper, then laminate it. Now they have their own special turkey placemat.

Pinecone turkey
Gather pinecones, then cut out colorful turkey feathers from colored construction paper. Use red felt to cut out the turkey’s comb. Glue your Thanksgiving turkey together, inserting the feathers in between the pine comb leaves.

Making a Hand Turkey
Here’s a great Thanksgiving creation for preschoolers. The infamous hand traced turkey is easy and kids love doing it.

Let the preschoolers use colored construction paper to trace their turkey. Be sure they have pencils they can trace lightly with so when it comes time to decorate their turkey they can go over where they traced. Also be sure they understand to spread their hands out as far as they can stretch them. One way to be sure they understand this is by hand exercises. Show them how to hold their hand up and stretch their fingers out to the sides. They will get a kick out of practicing this a few times.

Once they have it all down pat, show them how to slowly trace around their hand. With preschoolers this might be a slightly difficult task, so lend a hand where necessary.

To decorate their turkey use crayons, colored pencils or washable markers. Have them go along the pencil line to highlight the trace of the turkey. This will help the turkey to stand out on the construction paper. Next let them color their turkey in. You might find some pink turkeys or purple turkeys but that’s ok. Let them be creative and make their turkey truly unique.

Be sure to have some feathers for them to add to their turkey. Use paste or glue to attach the feathers to the paper. Also don’t forget that little gobbler. You’ll want to dip a few cotton balls in paint a day or so before you do this craft in class.

Last, but not least, let them put a face on their turkey. All turkeys need eyes and a beak. The eyes are easy for the children to draw on. The beak may be another story. Make beaks out of orange and yellow construction paper. You may want to make these ahead of time. When the time comes, the kids can attach them with paste or glue.

The hand traced turkey has been around for years and years. With a little imagination and your help, keep the tradition alive with your preschool students.

Pinecone Turkeys
Busy, busy, busy is something you need when it comes to your preschool class the week of Thanksgiving. All the hustle and bustle around their own home makes them pretty excited and antsy. Making crafts is one way to keep them busy and help them to concentrate.

Making pinecone turkeys can be a lot of fun. You can even take them out on a pinecone hunt if you have a tree in the area. They will enjoy the pinecone scavenger hunt outdoors.

To make these little treasurers you will need of course, the pinecones. You will also need brown pom pom balls, a black marker, yellow construction paper cut into beak shapes, light brown and red pipe cleaners, brightly colored feathers and glue.

Start each child out with a pinecone. Next have them attach a pom pom to the small end of the pinecone to make the head. A black marker can be used to make the eyes of the turkey. Using glue, carefully attach the yellow beaks. By taking a red pipe cleaner doubled over they can make the turkey’s gobbler. Attach this at the very bottom of the turkey’s head with the glue.

Now for the turkey’s legs and feet. You will have to help each child with this part of the turkey. Fold the light brown pipe cleaners leaving 1 to 1 1/2 inches at the bottom of one end. Twist the pipe cleaner together to make a sturdy leg. Now take the excess piece of pipe cleaner at the bottom and separate it into three prongs to make the feet. Bend the separated pipe cleaner at a 90-degree angle so the feet can set directly on the table. Attach the legs to the pinecone with glue.

Last but not least add the feathers to the larger end of the pinecone. This can also be done with glue. Make sure the feathers are secure so they don’t get lost on the trip home. Be sure to let the turkeys dry for a day or two before sending them home with the children.