Turkey Hats

Turkey hats are a fun Thanksgiving craft that your kids can wear around and show off.

This particular one is SUPER ADORABLE and fairly easy to make.

Here is what you will need:

I didn't measure anything; I just sort of eye-balled it:
- two brown strips (to measure around the child's head
- one brown circle (for the turkey head)
- 4 colored feathers
- one set of eyeballs
- one red waddle thing (whatever it is called)
- two red feather 'hands'
- one yellow diamond (for the beak)
- one sturdy strip of cardstock (for the neck)

Putting it all together is pretty self explanatory:
Measure the brown strips around the child's head, and tape/glue everything else together:

Fold the diamond in half so the beak can open and close, and use the cardstock "neck" to make the turkey's head wobble:

And that's it!

If this seems a little too ambitious for you:
They can be as easy as you'd like.

This one was made by my friend while she was watching Cannon for a playgroup.  She had him tell her 3 things he was thankful for and wrote them on the feathers.

Either way my kids have enjoyed them.

Paper Turkeys

Here are some quick craft idea's for making your own paper turkeys:

Turkey Handprints

The turkey hand print idea has been around forever.
At least I was doing it when I was a kid...

This particular one came from Cannon's pre-school last year.

The poem makes it perfect to give as a gift:

Poem Reads:

This isn't just any turkey,

As anyone can see.

I made it with my hand,

which is a part of me.

It comes with lots of love,

Especially to say - 

I hope you have a very

Happy Thanksgiving Day!!!

Or try this one:

And of course just your plain old hand dipped in paint!

If you are afraid of letting your kiddo dip the entire palm of his hand in paint you can always just trace it on colored paper or let them color it in themselves.

Thankful For Turkey

This is an excellent idea that will help bring the 'spirit' of Thanksgiving to your house all month long (or however long you would like).

The idea is to put a picture of a turkey up on a wall in your home.  We put ours on the front door, so the boys would be reminded of it often.

You could draw your own, or just print one from the internet.

We colored our printed turkey, then we cut out several feathers, in coordinating colors.

Once a day, we would talk about things that we are grateful for.  We would then pick one blessing, and write it down on a feather.

We started at the beginning of the month, and had Cannon do one feather per day, but this could easily be done in a single day or over any amount of time.

This would also be a good Thanksgiving Day activity; especially if you were having a large group of people.  Everyone could have a feather and write down something that they were thankful for.

I think this is going to turn into an annual tradition at our house.  I am really enjoying it so far!