November is here and you know what that means…it’s turkey craft time! These 10 unique turkey crafts for kids are a special way to start the holiday season!
Why do kids have such an infatuation with turkeys? Well…turkeys are silly. Turkeys sound funny. They’re majestic but at the same time, they look kinda weird. They are birds with wings and yet you don’t see them flying through the sky. Turkeys have HUGE feathers. They have that thing (the snood) on the side of their beak that no one can ever remember the technical name of. And they can run really fast. All these facts make kids love turkeys! Turkeys also symbolize abundance and gratitude which is what make them the best types of crafts to do around Thanksgiving.
Quick, funny story: When I was a little girl, we had some pet turkeys. They were MEAN! They used to chase me all over the yard. And my mother and grandmother used to think it was hilarious! If social media reels existed back then, they surely would have had a few go viral. Fast forward to many years later…when my Labrador Retriever was a puppy, I took her for a walk in the neighborhood. We came around a corner and what did we run into? A ginormous flock of wild turkeys. And what did they do? They chased us down the street!
Given my track record with real-life turkeys, it’s amazing I like to do anything with them at all. But this time of year, my favorite crafts to do with kids are all turkey related because they are versatile and so much fun!
These cute crafts are unique because some are personal keepsakes your child can make for another family member. Some make adorable, colorful, table centerpieces. Some would be great for a “kid’s table” activity at your Thanksgiving gathering. One can be eaten! And all of them provide lots of hands-on learning, creativity, and fun.
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Here’s our 10 Unique Turkey Crafts for Kids
1. Thankful Turkey
I love this adorable guy! It’s the Thankful Turkey. Colorful cardstock paper, scissors, glue, the Thankful Turkey template and a pencil, are all you need to make this awesome centerpiece and conversation starter. I love the colorful feathers, but my favorite part is it’s legs! On each feather, my daughter wrote something she is thankful for. This could also be a great family activity where everyone writes something they are thankful for on a feather.
This craft can also be used to beat boredom if you are traveling for the holiday! It was part of our “car school” lesson: “car school” is what we do when we take a road trip but still have school. I pre-cut and prepped all of the pieces so my daughter just had to write and assemble it in the car.
You can get the template for the Thankful Turkey Craft from Teachers Pay Teachers HERE.
2. Handprint Turkey and Poem
This is such a sweet keepsake craft that captures a piece of your young kiddo forever! We made these during 2020 and 2021 when we weren’t able to see all of our family for Thanksgiving. We did porch deliveries or mailed them to those family members and they were a much appreciated Turkey Day surprise!
You can get the template for the Turkey Handprint Poem Craft from Teachers Pay Teachers HERE.
3. Paper Plate Turkey
Is there anything you can’t do with a paper plate? Probably, but here’s one thing you CAN do…make a turkey! This wasn’t my idea but I did research a ton of ways to make this turkey unique. I love this craft because it provides so many options for kids to get creative in designing their turkey’s feathers! My daughter chose to make colorful feathers out of some tissue paper squares I had pre-cut for another craft, but the sky is the limit with this one!
The basic supplies you will need to make the turkey’s face, body, and feet are:
- Paper plate
- Construction paper (in brown, orange, and red)
- Googly eyes
- Scissors
- Glue
The FUN, optional supplies you will need are:
- Tissue paper or construction paper squares – cut the paper into small 1-inch squares and glue them onto the paper plate. Your child can group colors together or make a mish-mash like my daughter did.
- Crayola Washable paint – use fall colors like orange, brown, yellow, and red. Or use any color your kiddo wants! They can finger paint their paper plate feathers or use a paint brush, cotton ball clipped to a clothespin, cotton swabs, or a sponge.
- Watercolor paint – watercolors would make beautiful turkey feathers and this would be a great time to teach color mixing. This option would also be great for older kids. My daughter loves watercolor painting and this is the watercolor palette we have. It’s great because it has a ton of spaces in the cover to do mix colors!
- Leaves– turn this into a cool nature activity by gathering leaves and gluing them to the plate. *Use Modge Podge over them to keep the colors from fading. Or use fake leaves so they won’t lose their color at all.
- Feathers– make the turkeys feathers out of real feathers! If you live in an area where you often find feathers outside, collect them and use those. Or pick up a colorful bag of feathers from Amazon or a craft store.
- Handprints – another great keepsake option for babies and toddlers. trace your child’s hand on multiple colors of construction paper, cut them out and glue them to the paper plate. You could do this with footprints too!
- Dot Markers – my daughter loves dabbing things with dot markers.
- Stickers – fill your child’s bucket by letting them put stickers all over their paper plate. Dot stickers make for more of a “clean” looking turkey but if all you have are random stickers, let them have at it. It will keep them busy and they’ll like that their turkey is full of silly things.
- Crayons/Markers/Chalk – if all you have are crayons and markers or chalk, let your child color their paper plate with those. You can do a lesson with color mixing using crayons and chalk too.
You can get a full tutorial for assembling the paper plate turkey from Mombrite Cotton Ball Painted Paper Plate Thanksgiving Turkey Craft.
4. Pinecone Turkey with Handprint Feathers
Fall is an easy time to find pinecones and they make for some cute turkeys! This is a fun keepsake to put with your fall decorations. Make a new one every year for a few years. It’s neat to see how the turkey’s feathers grow each fall as your kiddo’s hands grow!
You’ll only need a few supplies for this craft:
- A pine cone (the bigger and more open they are, the better)
- Construction paper in colors of your child’s choice PLUS orange and red
- Large googly eyes
- Elmer’s Glue (or hot glue)
To make the pinecone turkey:
- Trace your child’s hand multiple times on the construction paper and cut them out
- From the orange construction paper cut out a triangle (for the beak), PLUS 2 skinny rectangles (for the legs) and 2 pieces shaped like feet. You can make the legs as long or as short as you want.
- From the red construction paper, cut out a red piece to look like the turkey’s snood
- Next, lay the pinecone on its side with the bottom of it facing you (this part will be the face). Glue the bottom part of the handprints into the top, open parts of the pinecone. Make sure the handprints are spread out within the open parts of the pinecone to look like a turkey when its feathers are flared out.
- Glue the orange feet to the legs, then glue the opposite end of the legs to the underside of the pinecone. You might have to bend the end of the leg so you can attach it inside the pinecone.
- Glue the snood to the beak, then glue the google eyes and beak to the front of the pinecone
Note: I’m so sorry my photo doesn’t have the feet attached! I was too excited to take a picture of it and forgot to take another one at the end.
5. Turkey Q-Tip Dot Painting
If you’re looking for a quick PRINT and GO activity, this is it! Like the paper plate turkey craft, this activity lets your child get creative using paint on cotton swabs (QTips), or with their fingers. All you need for this activity is the Q-Tip Dot Painting: Turkey Feathers Printable (download for free below), Crayola washable paint, and cotton swabs (QTips).
As you can see, my wild child decided to paint her entire turkey, some of which she added with her toes, but she had a great time and made one colorful bird! Note: this printable has been updated from what is shown in the photo. There are 2 versions included: one with a pre-colored turkey and black and white feathers to dot paint, and one black and white turkey to color and feathers to dot paint.
Print the turkey on cardstock paper then use the cotton swabs (or fingers) to paint dots on each feather.
Download the Turkey Q-Tip Dot Paint Printable HERE.
6. Turkey Feather Name Practice Activity
This name practice craft is the perfect addition to your Thanksgiving theme! Kids will gobble up the fun in seeing their name on this adorable turkey’s feathers. In addition to helping with letter recognition, it’s also great practice for fine motor skills, and counting. And it’s versatile and can be used in many other ways too! It quickly became my daughter’s new BFF after we put it together
You can get the Turkey Feather Name Practice Activity HERE.
7. Silly Turkey Headband
Your little turkey will love strutting their stuff in this silly Turkey Headband. Big goofy eyes, floppy legs, and colorful feathers make this an adorable accessory to wear on Thanksgiving, or any day in November. It will give you an entertaining photo shoot too! All you need for this craft is some construction paper in multiple colors, scissors, glue or tape, maybe a stapler, and the free template! Check out this quick tutorial on how to put the headband together.
Download the free template HERE.
8. 5 Little Turkeys Poem / Puppet Craft
This is a fun little craft and poem you can use all throughout the month of November! It provides some practice with fine motor skills, counting, and story re-telling. It’s a cheerful and silly way to start the morning! My daughter always asks to do it on repeat. The stick characters bring some dramatic play and imagination, and get everyone moving!
All you’ll need for this craft is the Five Little Turkeys template, crayons, large craft sticks, and tape or glue. I love that this activity comes with its own little envelope that’s part of the scene but is also used to store the stick puppets!
If you have multiple kids, this activity comes with large characters to cut out and make yarn necklaces with so your kids can act out the poem like a real play
You can get the Five Little Turkeys Craftivity and Poem from Teachers Pay Teachers HERE.
9. 10 Fat Turkeys – Build-A-Turkey
I made an entire “car school” lesson from the book 10 Fat Turkeys! Car school is when we have to travel so we take school in the car. The book teaches rhyming and counting backwards in a fun and silly way! Kids love all the goofy activities these fat turkeys try to do. After you read the story, have your child build their own turkey from this 10 Fat Turkeys Book Extension Pack on Teachers Pay Teachers. Then use the turkey in some dramatic play to reenact their favorite activities from the story!
The book extension pack was perfect for a full lesson because it also comes with other activities like games, math, coloring pages, and writing prompts. Before my daughter was old enough to do writing prompts, I used them as talking pieces. It still got her brain thinking because she had to tell me her thoughts and ideas based on the prompt but I would do the writing.
10. Turkey Pancake Art
Whenever we have a holiday, or do themed learning, I always incorporate food! It’s fun for my daughter and also gives us one meal we don’t have to struggle through. Kids love when you tell them they can play with their food so when they get to build something out of their breakfast, then eat it, it’s a great way to start their day!
Gobble, Gobble! Happy Thanksgiving!