Every year I challenge myself to come up with a new Thanksgiving turkey craft that hasn’t been done before. While this turkey craft is not outrageously creative, it is fun and my preschoolers loved working on it.
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Every year I scour Pinterest for new Thanksgiving craft ideas and I can always count on finding tons and tons of turkey crafts. I thought I’d add one more to the bunch: faux sand sprinkled Thanksgiving turkey puppets!
The materials you need are pretty basic.
- foam turkey cut outs (or you can also use heavy card stock of cardboard)
- colored faux sand (how-to will follow)
- craft sticks
- liquid glue
- hot glue
- googly eyes
Begin with a foam turkey cut out.
I found my set at Target’s dollar spot, but you can use some of the following. They may not be foam, or give you a look just like mine, but the end product will be similar.
Use some liquid glue on the tail feathers in lines to make a design. With my preschoolers, in the photos, I just put a quick line of glue around each of the tail feathers of the turkey craft.
Invite your little one to sprinkle some faux sand on the glue. If you need a recipe, you can find my recipe here. I made five vibrant colors to make sure the faux sand really stood out against the darker color of the turkey craft.
Glitter would work very well too, but I’m too chicken to try glitter with my preschoolers.
I love sprinkling activities because it is excellent for developing fine motor skills. This took the place of a writing activity that day. In preschool, we focus more on fine motor activities than using pencils to trace letters and shapes. For more information about writing in preschool, you can read these posts: Development of Emergent Writing and What Does Writing Practice Look Like in Preschool?
Once the faux sand has been sprinkled all other the glue, covering every little bit, allow the glue to dry completely. Then, over a sink, dust off the remaining faux sand. Finally, carefully glue a craft stick on the back of the turkey and a googly eye on the front.
Now, hand to your little one for some fun pretend and puppet play! Don’t froget to scroll to the bottom of this post for more Thanksgiving crafts by Stay At Home Educator.
Enjoy!
For more Thanksgiving crafts and ideas, try out some of these:
More Thanksgiving crafts from Stay At Home Educator:
Beaded Feathers Thanksgiving Turkey Craft
Thanksgiving Turkey Hats
Thanksgiving Turkey Suncatchers
I’m Thankful Turkey Craft
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I am Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home mama of five! I am 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 range of levels, including preschool and college, and a little bit of just about 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
Tracy V says
December 3, 2015 at 9:20 amThank you! My son got these turkeys as a thanksgiving prize from his aunt and we didn’t know what to do with them. Your “sand” recipe is great!! He keeps asking if it’s after lunch so we can use it for our craft. Thank you! I’m subscribing to your site today!
Sarah Punkoney says
December 3, 2015 at 3:35 pmSo happy you and your son enjoyed the craft, and thanks for subscribing! I’m glad you are here!