Thankful Turkey Craft Printable for Kids
A turkey craft is great to make any time of the year, but especially for Thanksgiving. This fun thankful turkey craft printable includes a banner that says “thanks”. It can be used as a DIY decoration for the holiday table or a way to keep little hands busy while you prepare Thanksgiving dinner.
If you love this Thanksgiving craft, you’re also going to want to try this printable turkey hat, this Thanksgiving placemat printable or these fun Thanksgiving coloring pages.
I bet you’ve never heard of craft flashcards…Of course you haven’t…because I totally made it up 🙂 As a pediatric Occupational Therapist, I’ve witnessed kids struggle to complete multi-step activities. So, I came up with this brilliant (if I do say myself) way to break down crafts into bite-sized pieces in the form of flashcards.
These are especially perfect for those kiddos who have limited attention spans.
Crafts are such a great developmental tool for kids (improves motor planning, attention span, executive functioning, fine motor skills, language development and more), and using flashcards makes planning crafts for your kids to enjoy even easier.
Just print out a few of your favorites onto cardstock, cut them into the cards with a hole in the corner and place them on a keyring that you can connect to your craft supply bag (which you can fill using our master list of supplies that we stick to for every single one of the projects in the flashcard collection). It’s so simple.
And the best part is that there’s not a screen in sight. Technology is such a great thing, but it’s also nice to take a break from it once in awhile and let the brain explore in other ways. Click the image to learn more about our collection of 100 Craft Flashcards for Kids.
Fun Facts about Thanksgiving
- Americans eat 704 million pounds of turkey every Thanksgiving
- Lots of Americans go to the movies on Thanksgiving. The movie “Frozen” had the biggest Thanksgiving day opening of all time.
- “Jingle Bells” was originally a Thanksgiving song.
- The first Thanksgiving lasted 3 days.
- About 50 million people watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade each year.
To learn more about Thanksgiving and its traditions, check out this article from Good Housekeeping.
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Save this fun Thanksgiving craft for later. Pin it to your favorite Pinterest board…
Combine Reading with Crafting
The absolute best way that I can think of to elevate the crafting experience is to combine with reading a good book. Here are some of our favorite turkey themed books for kids.
How to make a Thanksgiving Turkey Craft
This simple turkey craft printable leaves lots of room for creativity. You can print it out onto construction paper and cut out the pieces or simply color and cut. Use your imagination and make it your own. This craft is perfect for kids of all ages, but if crafting with young children you will need to help with some of the more complex steps, like cutting out the pieces and assembling the banner.
SUPPLIES FROM THE BAG
- Crayons or markers
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Yarn
- Hole punch
- Tape
- Thankful turkey craft printable
Kids craft ideas are no good if they only sit exist on the internet but are never actually made by kids. We want to make crafting with your kids something that you do regularly and enjoy together. So, we’re removing some of the roadblocks, like too much prep time, lots of mess and hefty pricetags.
Fill your bag using our master list of craft supplies, and you’ll be ready to make any of the fun and simple crafts you see here. We stick to this list so that you can get right to the good stuff. Grab these items and fill your bag so that you’re ready to craft some memories at a moment’s notice whenever the opportunity strikes.
Paper Turkey Craft Instructions:
Step 1: Use the Free Template
- Download and print the free printable template. Printing onto cardstock works best.
- Color all of the parts for this craft using crayons or markers. If you’re practicing fine motor skills, be sure to break those crayons. It’s a great way to encourage a mature pincer grasp.
Alternate: Instead of printing and coloring, use the download as a template and cut the pieces from construction paper. Add in the details using markers.
Step 2: Cut Out the Parts for Your Thankful Turkey Craft
- Now that your turkey and the feathers have been colored, cut out the turkey body and the turkey’s feathers.
Step 3: Begin Assembly
- Grab your glue stick and begin assembly of your Thanksgiving turkey craft.
- Add the feathers first. We set the feathers where we wanted them first and then glued them into place for the best results.
- Wait to glue the wings into place until the next step.
*If you chose to use the printable as a template, you will need to glue the beak and wattle in place. Then add some googly eyes.
Step 4: Prep the Turkey Wings
- Turn each of the turkey’s wings over to the back and color that side also.
- Now glue them in place, placing them in a position that has them stretched out like the turkey is about to give you a big hug.
- As a finishing touch, take a pencil or marker and curl the end of the each wing around it. This will result in the ends of the wings being curled outward slightly.
Step 5: Get Out the Hole Punch
- Take your hole punch and put a hole in the top outer part of each wing. This is where we will tie the banner he will be holding.
Step 6: Make the Thanksgiving Banner
- Now prepare the banner that your turkey will be holding.
- Cut out each of the letter pieces for the banner.
- Take your yarn and measure a piece that is about 5 inches longer than your turkey from wing to wing.
- Tape each of the banner pieces to your piece of yarn, spaced evenly about 1/8″ apart from each other in the center of the string.
Step 7: Finish Off Your Cute Thanksgiving Turkey Craft
- Lace the ends of your yarn through each of the holes you made in the wings.
- Then tie a little bow on each side to secure the banner in place to create your thankful turkey.
How to make this a turkey name craft
To turn this into a turkey name craft, all you need to do is replace the banner the says “thanks” with the child’s name. You can print out the banner as is and flip it to the other side or use printable as a template to cut out your own banner pieces. Then write each letter of your child’s name on a banner piece. All other instructions for this craft would remain the same.
How to add a stand for your turkey craft
To make your turkey craft into a DIY Thanksgiving decoration for the holiday season, you may want to add a stand.
- Option 1: simply tape the turkey to a something on your table, like a candle stick (without the candle lit, of course) or salt shaker.
- Option 2: Add a toilet paper roll to the back of your turkey craft.
- Option 3: Cut out a triangle of cardboard or heavy cardstock. Fold it in half and attach one half to the back of your turkey. The other half would be folded out to form a stand.
Here are even more Cute Turkeys and Thanksgiving Fun
Turkey Art
Printable Thanksgiving Turkey Hat
Paper Bag Thanksgiving Turkey Craft
