Now that Halloween is over, it’s all about Thanksgiving!

We love this time of year because the weather is finally cool, there’s more time with family and of course, the food is amazing.

You know we love handprint art and crafts for kids so we couldn’t resist creating this latest project! 

Today, we’re sharing our new favorite turkey handprint craft for kids. 

Read on below or watch the video to see how to make one of these adorable guys with your kiddos.

Also, be sure to check out all of our turkey activities for kids for even more ideas.

Turkey Handprint Craft

If you’ve never made any handprint art and crafts with your kids, you’re really in for a treat.

It’s such a great way to get your kids’ creativity flowing and work on things like fine motor skills without them having a clue they’re doing it!

Plus, they’ll be so proud when they’ve each made their own little turkey memento.

Directions

Download and print the turkey template. Cut each piece out.

Glue the light brown turkey belly onto the turkey’s body.

Glue the turkey beak to the middle of the turkey’s head.

Secure the snood (the red piece) to the top, side of the turkey’s beak with glue.

Glue the paper eyeballs or googly eyes to the turkey’s head, above the beak.

Glue the yellow feet onto each side of the bottom of the turkey’s body.

Trace your child’s hand onto the colored card stock of your choice (these will be the turkey’s feathers) and cut them all out.

Fan out the colored handprints out, then glue the completed turkey onto the handprints.

That’s it!

Isn’t this the cutest handprint turkey craft ever?!

Now just sit back and admire the adorable turkey handprint characters your kids made!

Turkey Template Notes

With the majority of our crafts, we offer two different templates in the download.

The first page is for use at home with 1-2 children. All the pieces are on one page and are to be printed on white card stock. After it’s printed, you’ll cut out the template, trace it onto the colored paper you need, then cut out a second time.

The upside to using this template is that you’ll save your colored paper so you can use it for future projects. The downside is you have to cut out twice and trace one time.

The second part of the template is for multiple children in a classroom, daycare or library setting. Instead of all the pieces being on one page, they’re separated based on the colored paper they’re to be printed on.

When you use this template, the kids (or adults) will only need to cut out the pieces once!

Adapting For Younger Kids

This craft is perfect for elementary aged children who are able to trace, use scissors and glue sticks without much adult assistance.

If you have younger kids or students, you can still use this handprint craft.

One suggestion we recommend is to have all the turkey pieces pre cut and ready to assemble.

This way, the kids won’t all need help cutting out the pieces at the same time. Instead, they’ll be able to jump right in and begin gluing the turkey body together.

Be sure to keep in mind that young children will still need adult help to trace their hands and cut out each of the handprints.

We also suggest googly eyes over the paper eyes if you have them, because they really give this craft depth and dimension. Plus, kids just love them!

Don’t forget to grab your free turkey template by entering your email in the form below.

More Thanksgiving Activities

Don’t stop here! Why not create an entire unit study around this cute turkey craft? Read on below for our favorite ideas.

Reading out loud to kids is so beneficial for their development. When you read to kids, they learn to focus, develop new vocabulary, and develop a love of reading. For those reasons and more, we recommend starting with books.

Below are some of the top Thanksgiving books for kids!

Turkey Trouble – If you’ve never read this book, you have to add it to your holiday collection! It’s so cute and fun and kids just love it! Follow the turkey around the farm as he disguises himself as different animals so the farmer doesn’t catch him for Thanksgiving dinner!

How To Catch A Turkey – Kids who love the How To Catch books will want to see all the crazy contraptions kids make to try to catch a turkey loose at the school!

Pete The Cat: The First Thanksgiving -Every Pete the Cat book is fantastic, but this one takes it up a notch with flaps for the kids to open. It’s a great way to get the kids excited about reading and Thanksgiving!

Making crafts with kids is a great way to practice fine motor skills, engage creativity, and have fun! Add in more with some of our favorite ideas:

• Pumpkin Craft For Preschoolers
• Turkey Popsicle Stick Craft
• Paper Bag Corn Craft
• Paper Bag Pilgrim Craft

For an introductory STEM activity, try out these Thanksgiving pattern block mats. They’ll help kids learn shapes, patterns, colors, and more!

Kids who love coloring will want to add these Thanksgiving color by number printables to their holiday activities.

Combine learning and fun with these Thanksgiving do a dot printables. They’ll help kids work on letter recognition, counting, shapes, and many other things.

Share With Us

Did you make this handprint turkey craft with your kids or students? 

We love seeing how your artwork turns out. Share a picture with us by posting it to our Facebook wall or in the discussion area of our private Facebook group.

More Thanksgiving Ideas For Kids

Turkey Craft Template