8 Turkey Crafts for Kids

Thanksgiving is a fun time of year and an important holiday for teaching children about thankfulness and gratitude. Sometimes thanksgiving can become a stressful time with all the cooking and preparation for traveling, company, and the Christmas season. These turkey crafts are intended to be low-prep activities that can be done without going to the store (not having the suitable craft materials keeps me from doing so many projects with my kids! Look in the descriptions to discover other ways to do the craft project with your child, even if you are short-handed on craft supplies! Hope these can provide memorable experiences for your family/classroom during this special time of year!

1: Popsicle Stick Turkeys

Use playdough (I love homemade gingerbread playdough, but any playdough would work) and popsicle sticks to make a turkey with feathers. The most fun part is coloring designs and patterns on the popsicle sticks to make them look like feathers. Adding designs to the feathers can make this fun for much older children.

2: Turkey Descises

Read, “Turkey Trouble” (or watch this video if you don’t have the book) and then print a coloring book picture (or purchase and download from HERE) of a turkey and have your child dress the turkey up in a costume to avoid being eaten on thanksgiving day.

3: Play Dough Mat Turkeys

Let your child add the feathers to a turkey playdough mat. Purchase this mat with other fun thanksgiving activities HERE. Or make your own playdough mat by laminating a piece of paper with two circles that create a turkey body.

4: Food Turkeys

I made a healthy food turkey using an apple, a banana, toothpicks, and raisins. My two-year-old wasn’t quite able to put the raisins on the toothpicks (but I think could’ve done it if I had used life saviors or marshmallows instead. He loved taking the turkey apart and eating it for a snack! This activity could be done with a big variety of foods.

5: Pipe Cleaner Turkey

I used a styrofoam cup as the base of my turkey and glued a little paper cut out of a turkey's body. A styrofoam ball would’ve worked really well too! You could have the kids poke the pipe cleaners into the top or back of the turkey forming loops. With older kids, you could have them twist the pipe cleaners into little shapes or colorful patterns out of the pipe cleaners.

6: Pom Pom Turkey

I used recycled materials to make a fun turkey that could be filled with pom poms. I used a pringles can, toilet paper rolls cut in half, duck tape, and hot glue. You could make the turkey body out of any round container (oatmeal, baby food puff containers…) and then the feathers could be paper towel rolls or toilet paper rolls, or even paper rolled up to form a tube. My son really liked matching the pom pom colors to each feather and sliding them into the body. I also added a duck tape beak, so he fed the pom poms to the turkey. Then when the turkey was full, I would take off the lid and dump it so he could play some more. This would be a really fun thing to add to a pom pom sensory bin with a few laminated leaves and pine cones.

7: Toothpick and Pony Bead Turkeys

I know, one more playdough turkey! I think playdough is really low prep and highly entertaining, but I know many adults think it is too messy. So you could also do this activity with the toothpicks placed in an apple or poked into a styrofoam cup. Once you make the little turkey with the toothpicks sticking out, let your child fill the toothpicks with different colored pony beads. Students could sort by color, make patterns, or just practice placing the beads through the toothpick.

8: Transfer paper turkey

I got the turkey body from this curriculum, but you could cut out your own turkey body from a piece of colored paper. Cut out a circle from a piece of transfer paper and then remove the sticky part. If you don’t have transfer paper, you could have your child glue paper specks onto a paper plate or piece of white paper cut into a circle. Then stick or glue the turkey body on top of the circle with the paper specks. It is also fun to make the paper specks out of tissue paper and then hang them in a window as a turkey mosaic.

Related Questions:

What are some thanksgiving books for kids?

Needing a list of read-aloud for the month of November? Here are a few:

Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson

The Thank You Book (Elephant and Piggie) by Mo Willems

Turkey Trouble by Wendi Silvano

See a much bigger list of books along with crafts and activities to do with each one HERE.