These 5 quick and easy turkey crafts for kids are made with things you already have at home. Great for preschool, a snow day, or while waiting for Thanksgiving dinner to cook!

 

If your kids love to craft as much as mine, you are going to love making and sharing these fun Thanksgiving-themed gifts with family and friends. Turkey crafts are also a great way to entertain your kids while making or cleaning up from Thanksgiving dinner on the big day. 

You could also give one or two of these crafts with some fall treats. They would be perfect alongside a loaf of Pumpkin Bread or Sweet Potato Bread and some Pumpkin Spice Spritz Cookies or Snickerdoodles.

Why You’ll Love These Projects

• Quick and easy to put together.
• Make great entertainment for the littlest guests before or after the Thanksgiving meal. 
• The supplies are simple and are good items to have on-hand for other craft projects. 
• Wonderful activities for home, school, church, or community center.

Supplies

• Construction paper: Make sure the multi-pack you get has brown in it. 
• 1-inch oak leaf punch: If you can find a larger leaf punch, you could also use that. 
• 2.5-inch round punch: Optional and you can use a slightly larger or smaller circle punch if you have one. 
• Tri-color rotini: Or any colored or dyed pasta. 
• Pistachio shells: You can use leftover shells or buy them. 
• Washable markers
• Pictures: Make sure to use pictures that can be cut up. 
• Notched popsicle sticks: Either the plain wooden or rainbow popsicle sticks work.
• Washable paint
• School glue and/or glue sticks: For attaching the elements. 

How to Make Easy Turkey Crafts

Leafy Tail Turkey

• Punch out leaves with an oak leaf punch in different colors and glue them in a fan shape.
• Cut out a circle or use a circle punch to punch out a circle and glue it on top of the leaves. 
• Draw on a turkey face and add legs and wings. 

Spiral Noodles Tail

• With a brown marker, draw a circle for a turkey body and add a head, beak and some feet. 
• Glue tri-color rotini pasta around the body in a semicircle. 
• To dress it up, use a paper with details printed on it, add some fall stickers, or write Happy Thanksgiving on it. 
• You can also glue some dried beans to the body if you’d like. 

Pistachio Tail Feathers

• Turn pistachio shells into feathers by adding feather details with a marker or washable paint and a small paint brush.
• With a marker, draw a circle for the turkey’s body and add a head, beak, and feet. 
• Glue the “feathers” (pistachio shells) around the outer edge of the body. 

Note: You can use leftover shells from eating pistachios or buy pistachio shells. Also, if you use paint on Thanksgiving day, be sure to have an extra adult or bid kid who can supervise that step. 

Turkey Yourself

• Cut out your child’s face and neck out of a picture. 
• Cut out a rough circle that is larger than the face you cut out.
• Create some feathers by cutting out pieces of red, yellow, and orange construction paper. Draw on the feather details. 
• Glue the feathers down first. Then add the body. And finally glue on the photo. 
• Garnish with a comb, feet, and a wing. 

Popsicle Stick Turkey

• Paint a handful of notched popsicle sticks in fall colors or use rainbow notched popsicle sticks.
• Glue them onto a piece of construction paper or cardstock in a semicircle shape. 
• Cut out a free-form turkey body from brown construction paper and glue it on top of popsicle sticks. 
• Cut out and glue on the rest of the turkey pieces: eyes, comb, beak, and feet. 

Note: If you make this one on Thanksgiving day, be sure to have an extra adult or big kid who can supervise the painting (or skip the painting and use rainbow popsicle sticks). 

Expert Tips

• Use punches instead of scissors where you can because they are easy and fun for kids to use (and there’s less risk a little one will cut their hair or clothes on Thanksgiving day). 
• Gather the supplies ahead of time so that it’s easy for the kids to be engaged. 
• Add a peel-and-stick dot magnet to the back of any of these projects so they can stick to the fridge.
• Set up two or three of these turkey crafts as stations that the kids can check out. 
• Make some of these crafts with your kids and then deliver them to a local nursing home to brighten the day of some of the residents (be sure to call ahead to make sure it’s ok).

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