Mr. Tom Turkey is Strutting About Part 2: Turkey Crafts

Stoked you came back to visit our humble vintage Mr. Tom Turkey is Strutting About Part 2 homeschool blog post! If you did miss our Mr. Tom Turkey vintage videos, songs and poems dig the quick link: 

Mr. Tom Turkey is Strutting About Part 1

                                     

We have created many a turkey craft over the decades and you possibly may want to do some of these with your wee ones this Thanksgiving Season. We have lots of FREEBIE turkey pattern downloads you may want in this post so keep on scrolling.

When my son Julian was young, we made turkey’s out of gourds using our hand prints cut out from Autumn colored construction paper for the turkey’s feathers. Everyone made their own variations, some and as you can see, we had a couple of glitter freaks in the bunch. I will say in my humble opinion, they turned out nice enough to put on any Thanksgiving table as part of a center piece: 

Another year we made the feathers out of construction paper folded into a fan. I made four slits in the back of the gourd with a steak knife, slipped the bottom of the fans into the slits, and WELLAH:

                         

If you want to make this turkey gourd with your wee ones for your Thanksgiving table, we can help you out with our freebie pattern:

Turkey Gourd Patterns

Here is a crayon resist turkey Julian made when he was very young from a pattern I drew back in the 70’s when I taught pre-k. Crayon resist is magical for wee ones as they dig seeing their crayon markings resist the paint. As well, this project is a movable puppet which allows children to move the turkeys head, wings and feet. I would say Julian’s turkey came out rather brilliant:

Try this art project with your wee ones using my exclusive printed pattern from our Teacher's Dojo Store:

AKGVH Vintage Movable Turkey Puppet

This pineapple turkey craft was one that I drew up for my mother’s Thanksgiving table for an interesting centerpiece back in the 70’s as well. The pineapple serves as the turkey’s body while the pineapple leaves made dyno tail feathers. Julian made one for our table one year:

If you want to make this turkey for your table, you will have to use Aleen’s glue or rubber cement to secure the turkey head onto the pineapple. Here is my downloadable pattern:

AKGVH Vintage Pineapple Turkey Centerpiece

Julian made a hand and foot turkey that I saved and got somewhat thrashed over the years:

Over a decade later, I had my wee grandbabes make one as well:

Julian made this cute paper bag turkey from my patterns:

You can get the pattern here: 

Turkey Paper Bag Puppet Patterns

And he made this really cute turkey headband:

My wee grandbabe girls made these paper bag turkey’s with the wide open mouth cut out to play “Feed the Turkey” game mentioned later on this post (if interested, keep on scrolling down). We used previously dyed pumpkin seeds for feather deco’s and used Autumn colors paint strips to outline the mouth, for the head and tail feathers:

We made these turkey’s using vintage coffee filters (I think from the 80’s when I had my pre-k, they were stored in my craft box, yes ALL these years!) for the turkey’s rear end, toilet paper tubes for the body and construction paper hand prints for the tail feathers and we sponge painted them all. Then added some of my turkey cut out patterns for features along with some wiggle eyes, glued them all together and “Gobble, gobble,” here come the turkey’s:

   

My wee grandboys had a jolly good time with these turkey wobblers I found on Scholastic. They were really intrigued on how they worked, wobble, wobble:

Your wee ones can make these interactive wobblers as well from Scholastic: 

Scholastic Perky Turkey Puppet



One year long ago I had my homeschoolers paint their hands to make this turkey box for our completed school worksheets. When my students are finished with their paper, they are to place it in our "school work box". Every month the decos on box are changed to reflect the holiday or season. I keep them in the appropriate folder and put them up every year. As well, before they put their work in the box I ask them, "Are you finished with your paper?". If they answer yes, I say, "O.K. you may stuff the turkey." Every month I change the phrase in accordance to the character highlighted on the box:

 

Last year my wee babes made some beautiful turkey suncatchers.
We made an apple, pear and leaves to go with our turkeys:

As well we painted our left over pumpkins with tempera paints:

Next, when the tempera paints dried, I spray painted each pumpkin with clear coat. When the spray paint dried, I poked some holes in the back of the pumpkins and had my wee babes pick colored feathers and insert them into the holes. Then my babes glued eyeballs, the wattle and beak onto their pumpkins. Talk about gorgeous! They even lasted until Thanksgiving day and made lovely centerpieces:

We hope you have enjoyed viewing all our turkey crafts we have done over the years and choose some of these turkey crafts to make with your babes this Thanksgiving Holiday Season! Your older children may want to make this paper turkey from Paper Toys as well:

Intricate Paper Turkey Craft Centerpiece for Older Children


Our next Turkey post will cover the various turkey games we have played over the years, so be sure to drop by soon. See you then!

C.S. Calkins

© 2019 C.S. Calkins All rights reserved.