DIY Turkey Crafts for Thanksgiving

I'm such a sucker for holiday kids crafts, especially if they involve handprints. It's such a fun way to mark a passing moment of time with your kiddos.

I still proudly display the turkey canvas we made when my youngest was a newborn that has each girl’s handprint at that point in time (they were 4, 1 and newborn). That newborn is now 7, and her hand is double the size it was on that canvas. I love to look at it every year and remember fondly that season of life.

Now that my girls are older, they don't need my help, as much, creating memorable crafts. Every year, we love to make Thanksgiving Turkeys out of paper plates and brown paper bags to decorate our table for the big feast. Thanks to Pinterest through the years we've found a number of awesome variations that make our Thanksgiving table look one-of-a-kind.

We love making paper plate turkeys, and one we look forward to making every year is a handprint turkey on a paper plate.

Check out my great list of turkey crafts I compiled for Zulily for more fun crafts to make with your kiddos for turkey day!

Paper Plate Turkey:

1. Trace hand onto paper plate.

2. Color in the palm and thumb brown. To the thumb, add details- eye, beak, wattle (yep, the red hang-y thing on the turkey's neck is called a wattle!). 

3. Color each of the fingers a different color to act as the turkey's feathers. 

4. Lastly, draw legs underneath the handprints for the legs and feet. 

I detailed how to make several more fun turkeys out of paper plates over at Zulily. Check out my blog post there for inspiration on paper plate turkeys.

This year, my girls decided to create a turkey that was inspired by something we see a lot of in Winter- pinecones! 

Pinecone Turkey

1. Take pinecones and lay them down on the table with the top facing you. 

2. Glue on eyes, a beak and wattle. 

3. Take strips of colored construction paper and write down things you are thankful for on each strip and stick them between the edges of the pinecone. 

They turned out so cute and will be a wonderful addition to our Thanksgiving table!

There are so many ways to create your own paper plate turkey to hang on the fridge or use as a centerpiece at your Thanksgiving Feast! What fun variations of a paper plate turkey have you found (and made)?