THANKSGIVING TURKEY CRAFT

This Thanksgiving Turkey craft is so fun! We made it last year and Lanae played with it for a couple weeks then we used it as decoration for another week or two for Thanksgiving.

I put it in storage thinking that she would love to play with it again next year. After pulling it out–both Lanae and Owen have enjoyed playing with the turkey and the beads for about a week and a half now. It’s kept them thoroughly entertained…

The turkey has done its job!! Ha ha… The kids may have been slightly entertained by spreading the beads all over the office, as well!

I love that this is huge for practicing fine motor skills. Lanae is a pro at it now and can fill up all the skewers by herself in less than 20 minutes. Owen still has a hard time finding the bead hole and sticking it onto the skewer. Fortunately, he had so much fun being included that he didn’t get too frustrated by it.

The turkey is super easy to make. I don’t have pictures of the process, we made it last year… But honestly, I just kind of made it up as I went after seeing a couple other turkeys online, using hot glue to make everything stick where I wanted it!

You just take a styrofoam ball and slice it in half so that it lays flat. Cover it in brown construction paper to make the turkey’s body.

Plop on some googly eyes with a little hot glue. A little orange and red construction paper for the beak and gobbler. You could even put some colored construction paper in the back for feathers…

Then poke your wooden skewers in the top. I did 5 skewers and pushed the ones on the side in a little farther so that they didn’t stick out way too far!

Grab the beads and show your kids how to put them on, if they need a demonstration. Or just let them go at it!

If your kids are a little older you could have them try to make a pattern. Lanae actually did a red, white, red, white pattern on her own and when I showed her what she’d done she thought it was the coolest thing!

I love activities that are simple and that kids can explore and learn on their own.

That’s her… “I did it!” face! Ha ha!

For this activity I did use small beads, but if your kids aren’t quite ready to be trusted with small, hard objects, you might want to try doing it with cheerios or some other ringed edible item so that you don’t have to worry about them putting them in their mouth.

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