Upcycled Turkey Craft for Thanksgiving

These are the turkey crafts we made last year with upcycled material at our Homeschool Co-op. A very creative mom in our co-op came up with this idea and was happy to let me share with you.

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You need (per child):

- 1 small (dessert) paper plate with white or light-colored bottom

- washable orange paint

- 1 paintbrush or foam paintbrush (we love this VALUE SET)

- 1 empty toilet paper roll

- construction paper of different colors

- 1 pair of scissors

- tacky glue (regular white glue will work, but it will take longer to dry)

- 1 pencil

- markers of different colors

- 2 googly eyes

- 1 candy corn (and a few to munch on while crafting)

- 1 stapler

- Thanksgiving or Fall foam stickers (optional)

Steps:
1. Paint the bottom of the small paper plate with the orange paint. You can use a paintbrush or a foam paintbrush.
A quicker way to do it is to have an orange paper plate, so there will be no need to paint or to wait on the paint to dry.
2. While you wait for the paint to dry, trace one of your child's hands with the pencil on construction paper and cut. This will be the turkey's feet.
3. Use tacky glue to glue googly eyes and the candy corn to the empty toilet paper roll. The candy corn is the turkey's beak.
4. Using different colors of construction paper, cut shapes that are similar to feathers. You can make between six and ten.
5. Talk to your child about Thanksgiving and about things that we are thankful for. Write one thing they are grateful/thankful for on each feather.
6. Staple the feathers around the top of the plate with the words facing up (the front). This is the turkey' tail.
7. Use tacky glue to glue the empty toilet paper roll (the turkey's body) onto the paper plate.
8. Apply some tacky glue around the thin bottom of the empty toilet paper roll and set it on the traced handprint. The handprint is the turkey's feet.
9. If you have Thanksgiving or Fall stickers, put some on the plate. We loved using the foam stickers. Some even had glitter on them!

This craft can be used just as a fun activity to make during the Fall and Thanksgiving season. It can also be used to hold the child's napkin and silverware (roll the napkin up and place inside the empty toilet paper roll) during the Thanksgiving dinner.  

If you feel that the toilet paper roll is unsightly as it is (bare brown), you can either paint it orange when you paint the paper plate or use brown or orange construction paper to wrap it around the empty toilet paper roll. We really enjoyed making this craft and kept it in our Fall decorations box. 
I can't wait to take them out again and maybe add more feathers this year.