Turkey is a very important part of Thanksgiving and has been since the time of the Mayflower and the pilgrims. There is no arguing that is it very tasty and a highlight of Thanksgiving dinner.
Get the kids involved in the Thanksgiving decorating, helping them make this Thanksgiving hand turkey craft.
You can use it as a decoration of its own, or add to a piece of paper or banner. You can always laminate it if you’d like to keep it for next year. Of course, you can just get the kids to make a new one every year too.
My children love doing the same crafts year after year and then comparing their efforts to see what they have done differently.
I absolutely adore revisiting my Thanksgiving turkey crafts for kids every year and making a new craft for my children.
Thanksgiving is a time for family friends, food and fun! An essential part of any Thanksgiving celebration is turkey – the traditional main course that graces most tables. So what better way to get into the Thanksgiving spirit than by making some fun turkey hand crafts out of construction paper with your kids? These cute and easy turkey hands are a great way to decorate for the holiday and keep the little ones entertained.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Making turkey hands out of construction paper is simple and requires minimal materials Here is a step-by-step guide
Materials Needed:
- Construction paper in various colors (brown, yellow, orange, red)
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- Googly eyes (optional)
Directions:
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Trace Hands – Have your child trace both of their hands on a piece of brown construction paper. Make sure to trace with fingers together and thumbs separated to form the turkey shape. Trace about 5-6 hands.
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Cut Out Hands – Cut out the traced hand shapes from the brown construction paper,
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Trace Feet – Next, have your child trace both of their feet on a larger piece of brown construction paper. The feet will form the turkey’s body.
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Cut and Glue Body – Cut out the traced feet and glue them together to make the turkey’s body. Glue the feet so one is slightly higher than the other.
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Attach Hands – Take the cut out brown hand shapes and glue them onto the back of the turkey’s body, arranging them like fanned out feathers.
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Add Color – Now it’s time to decorate! Take construction paper in yellow, orange and red and cut out small hand shapes. Glue these colorful hands amongst the brown to make fun feathers.
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Add Face – To finish, glue on googly eyes or draw a simple turkey face. Add a beak, wattle and snood with construction paper.
And just like that, you have adorable construction paper turkey hands perfect for Thanksgiving decorating! Hang them around the house or use them as place cards at your Thanksgiving table. Your kids will love seeing their turkey creations on display.
Turkey Hand Variations
Once you and your kids get the basics down, there are so many creative ways to make unique turkey hands with construction paper. Here are some fun ideas:
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Make turkeys in fall colors like orange, red and yellow
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Use fingerprint stamps for feathers
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Add sequins, pom poms or glitter to jazz them up
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Write what you’re thankful for on the hands
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Make turkeys hold paper hearts, flowers or leaves
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Use sticker eyes instead of gluing on googly eyes
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Give your turkey a top hat or bow tie for a fancy feast
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Make a turkey family with big and small hands
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Attach a popsicle stick to make turkey puppets
Let your imagination run wild! Encourage kids to get creative with different materials like foam, felt and paint too. The possibilities for turkey hand crafts are endless.
Benefits of Turkey Hand Crafts
Crafting turkey hands out of construction paper with your kids provides some great benefits beyond just holiday decor. Here are a few of the developmental perks:
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Fine Motor Skills – Cutting, tracing, gluing and drawing all help improve dexterity.
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Creativity – Decorating their turkeys lets kids express their artistic side.
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Counting – Having kids cut out a certain number of hands for feathers reinforces counting skills.
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Thankfulness – Writing what they’re thankful for reminds them of Thanksgiving’s meaning.
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Family Bonding – Crafting together creates special memories and quality time.
So grab some construction paper and turn little hands into turkeys this Thanksgiving! With a few simple supplies and these easy steps, you and your children can craft adorable turkey hands to celebrate the holiday. Let the creativity feathers fly!
How to make a Hand Turkey Drawing
Like most of my paper crafts this one has a few simple steps you can follow! It is simple enough for preschool kids, with a little help from their teacher.
I have fallen in love with handprint crafts recently because preschool kids love them. You can make almost anything using your hands! My handprint butterfly craft is another favorite of ours.
If you want to know what a turkey hand drawing is keep following my step by step instructions. It is much easier than you think as long as you like drawing around your hands.
Thanksgiving Hand Turkey Craft
Yield: 1 turkey Prep Time: 5 minutes Active Time: 15 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes Difficulty: easy Estimated Cost: free
Let’s have some fun tracing little ones hands to make some very cute Thanksgiving decorations with this turkey craft. Yep my turkey handprint craft is very easy and very popular.
You can use it to create place holders, wall decorations, and even a turkey banner for your Thanksgiving dinner.
Materials
- Construction Paper
- Marker
- Glue
- Pencil
Tools
Instructions
Step #1:
Using a piece of brown paper, cut out a peanut shape. Make one half of your peanut shape a little fatter than the other. This will be your turkey’s body.
Step #2:
Out of the same brown paper, cut out two equally shaped wings.
Glue one on each side of your turkey’s body. Slightly bend each one outward so your turkeys’ wings stick out a little bit. Step #3:
Cut two eyes out of white paper, using your black marker to draw in the pupils. Make bigger eyes to give your turkey a more cartoon look.
Using orange paper, cut out a triangle for its beak. Finally, using red construction paper cut out a wattle.
Note: A wattle is the piece of red skin that hangs around the turkeys’ beak.
Once these are all cut out, glue them in place.
Step #4:
Using the same orange paper as you did for your beak, cut out two equally sized feet. Glue them in place.
Step #5:
Trace your hands 8 times. Use red, orange, yellow construction paper – creating two hands from each color. This is basically how to draw a turkey wings from hand.
Cut out these eight hand prints. Lay out the prints with the thumbs facing upward, three on each side (one of each color). Glue these together.
Step #6:
Glue your turkey body in the middle of your hand prints.
Now you can have a yummy cooked turkey on the table and a cute live turkey on the wall!
Extra Tip: To make this Thanksgiving handprint turkey craft even more interesting, add large googly eyes, and make the beak 3D! You can use craft foam for this!
You can also change the color of the handprints if you desire. Why not make them sparkly by adding some glitter.
What else will you do with your hand turkey drawing? How about getting kids to write down 3 things they are grateful for on the back.
They can sign their name and write the date. Keep this as a memory and maybe make another one in a few years time and repeat the process. Would be a nice comparison between the two!
You can also add a popsicle stick to the back of this and turn it into a cute puppet. I actually have a paper turkey puppet if you want something for story telling this Thanksgiving.
This is definitely one of my top November crafts for kids!
My adorable turkey pop up card craft is the best way to send Thanksgiving blessings this year!
Learn how to make some Thanksgiving themed napkin rings with our easy thanksgiving craft idea.
Make a unique centerpiece for the table with this paper bag turkey. It comes with a purpose as you can fill it full of sweet or savory treats.
We have also come up with a few coloring pages. You can print these and let the kids color while Thanksgiving supper is cooking.
These turkey coloring pages are hand drawn for you and completely FREE. Just click and print.
Enjoy this kids Thanksgiving craft and many more! We are always thinking up new and interesting crafts for every holiday, so come back often to check out new crafts for each season.
Saving Talents has lots more Thanksgiving craft and printables for you and your children to enjoy during November.
If you want me to make something specific for you and your kids to try then please use the comments button below, but for now I hope you love this hand turkey art and now know how to draw a hand turkey.