Simple Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

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With Thanksgiving just around the corner, try this very simple Thanksgiving turkey craft with your kids. Find your paper plates and sponges! It’s going to get cheerful and colorful in your household this week.

Hooray for this Thanksgiving Turkey Craft!

It’s super easy to prepare, and your little ones will have a blast working on this festive craft. The art method you are going to try is called the sponge painting technique. This craft is ideal for young toddlers but even preschoolers will have fun with this popular art technique.

SUPPLIES

  • 2 Lulu Make Thanksgiving templates: template 1 and template 2
  • 2 Paper plates
  • Kids washable paint (I used RED, ORANGE, YELLOW.)
  • Sponge (I cut it into three narrow pieces, long enough for my little one to hold it comfortably. Wine corks or cut apples or potatoes would work as well.)
  • Paint pad or watercolor paper (If you do a lot of art with your little ones, I highly recommend getting the paint pad.)
  • Glue
  • Scissors
  • Watercolors + water
  • Paintbrush
  • Crayons
  • Googly eyes (optional)
  • Hole puncher (optional)
  • Pipe cleaner (optional)
  • Beads (optional)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Print both templates. Cut them out and trace them onto a watercolor paper or paint pad.

2. Cut the sponge into three strips.

3. Prepare your paint by squeezing each color (red, orange, yellow) onto a paper plate.

4. Dab your sponge into the yellow paint first. Do a few stamps onto the paper for your little ones to observe the technique. Ask them to try to do the same. There is no right or wrong, just let them stamp all over the paper & have fun. Then switch to orange color, and lastly use the red hue. They can alternate colors until the paper is filled with paint. Allow to dry.

5. Grab the head of the turkey and a red or orange crayon. (I like to keep my designs in one color scheme, but let your little ones choose the color. It is their craft!

6. Design the “sweater” of the turkey. By drawing straight lines your little ones are working on their pre-writing skills. (NOTE: I drew a turtleneck for my turkey so it would not get cold. I always like to tell a story about the craft we are currently working on. It helps little kids build their vocabulary, imagination, and reasoning. But back to the turkey craft!)

7. Draw the cheeks, hair, snood. (I drew two red circles on top of each other—think of it as a snowman and color it red.) Cut out a little triangle and use the orange crayon to color it. This will be the beak of the turkey.

8. Get the watercolors and paint the turkey.

9. Allow the craft to dry.

10. Find your paper plate and hole puncher. Make two holes.

11. Ask your little one to thread the beads onto the pipe cleaner. (By threading, your little one is working on their fine motorskills, hand-eye coordination—hello future Roger Federer—and patience!)

12. Thread the ends of the pipe cleaners through the holes you just punched. Make a knot on each side.

13. Apply the glue on the back of the paper plate and stick the big colorful circle your little one painted.

14. Find the head of the turkey and stick the googly eyes above the cheeks. Stick the beak on top of the red “snowman” (snood). 

15. Glue the head of the turkey onto the big circle.

16. Ta-Da! You are done. Hang the turkey craft onto the wall or fridge for everyone to see it.

17. Praise your little one!.

I hope you will get a chance to create this Simple Thanksgiving Turkey Craft and tag  @lulu__make on your posts.

Check out more craft ideas and activities and comment below with your favorite ideas!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Stay well and healthy.