It’s the time of year when we roll up our sleeves and dive into fall crafting fun. This paper plate turkey craft is perfect for entertaining little ones, teaching colors, and developing hand strength as they use scissors and glue.
It’s perfect kids craft to add to your Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers.
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Looking for crafts to too to your Thanksgiving preschool lesson plans? Look no further!
Our paper plate turkey craft ticks all the boxes.
This hands-on project transforms a simple paper plate into a vibrant turkey, complete with a tail made of snipped pieces of yarn.
It’s not just about creating a cute turkey, though. As your little ones carefully cut the yarn and stick it onto the plate, they’re also honing their fine motor skills and scissor cutting abilities.
So grab a paper plate, some colorful yarn, and let’s dive into this delightful Thanksgiving craft activity! It’s just one of many Thanksgiving crafts we do each year.
Why Do Thanksgiving Crafts in Preschool
Including Thanksgiving crafts in lesson plans, even in classrooms where process art is heavily emphasized, can offer unique benefits to preschoolers.
These thematic crafts provide context for the season, helping children understand and engage with cultural events in a tangible way.
Furthermore, while process art is crucial for open-ended exploration and creativity, structured crafts like Thanksgiving-themed projects can help children practice following instructions, enhance their fine motor skills, and give them a sense of accomplishment when they create something recognizable.
Here is our list of craft activities for preschoolers.
Paper Plate Turkey Craft for Thanksgiving
With simple fall materials, this craft is perfect for a artsy afternoon when getting messy is just part of the fun!
Materials
- cardboard tube
- liquid glue
- scissors
- fall colored yarn
- brown paint
- paper plates
- googly eyes
- orange construction paper
- red construction paper
The Set-Up
Start by prepping all the materials needed.
Cut the paper plates in half and cut the yarn into long pieces, one for each child to cut into smaller pieces. Draw beaks on orange construction paper and snoods on red construction paper, one for each turkey. The kids will cut them out later.
How to Make a Paper Plate Turkey
Start by inviting your preschooler to paint their cardboard tube brown. If they do this first, the paint will be dry when the time comes to use the tube!
This step is optional, you can certainly leave the tube as its natural tan cardboard color. But the brown paint gives it a distinct turkey look!
Invite your preschooler to start snipping the fall-colored yarn into small strings of 3-4 inches each. Encourage them to cut LOTS of strings! These will be the turkey’s feathers.
This step is super important for developing the hand muscles that are needed to become proficient in cutting, writing, and gripping. Plus, preschoolers love interacting with scissors!
We used thick yarn that had fall colors mixed in.
At first, some of the children wanted to cut the colors right on the line that separated them. Then they began to get more creative and cut so that their strings had more than one color showing. They were certainly mesmerized at this creative yarn choice!
Invite your preschooler to begin gluing the cut string onto half of the paper plate and cover the entire plate with colorful fall strings.
It’s important to allow the preschoolers to squeeze the liquid glue as independently as possible. Squeezing glue bottles is great for developing hand strength! Check out these other squeezing activities that develop hand strength.
This may require several layers of glue and string! Invite the children to press down on their creation as they go and fill in missing glue spots. Make sure they cover the whole side of the paper plate!
This adorable turkey craft is almost complete! Time to glue the cardboard tube to the paper plate. Once it’s on, add the beak, snood, and googly eyes.
Thanksgiving Crafts for Preschoolers
Do you have a favorite turkey craft for kids to make near Thanksgiving? Try out these easy turkey puppets or paper bag turkeys. My favorite as these paper plate turkeys.
- Paper Plate Turkey Craft
- Feather Painted Turkeys
- Beaded Feathers Turkey Craft
- Thanksgiving Turkey Puppets
Scissor Cutting Crafts
- Christmas Scissor Cutting Craft
- Suncatcher Cutting Practice
- Feather Cutting Craft
- Cutting Practice Using Jelly
- Paper Bag Haircuts
Books About Turkeys
High quality literature is so important for kids, and is a perfect addition to every preschool theme! We’ve hand-picked some of our favorite Thanksgiving books for you.
There are of course books about turkeys and Thanksgiving food, but we’ve also included books about gratitude and thankfulness that are perfect for this time of year.
Paper Plate Turkey Craft
This adorable turkey craft is ideal for scissor and glue practice which also works on developing hand strength. With fall colored materials, this turkey craft is perfect for celebrating Thanksgiving too!
Materials
- cardboard tube
- liquid glue
- scissors
- fall colored yarn
- brown paint
- paper plates
- googly eyes
- orange and red construction paper
Instructions
- Paint a cardboard tube with brown paint, or leave the tan color.
- Cut a large paper plate in half.
- Invite your preschooler to cut fall-colored yarn into small strings of about 3-4 inches each.
- Glue the string onto the paper plate half and cover the entire plate with fall-colored yarn. This may require several layers of glue and string.
- Draw a turkey beak on red construction paper and a snood on orange construction paper. Have the child cut them out.
- Glue the cardboard tube, googly eyes, beak, and snood on top of the yarn on the paper plate.
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I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
