How to Make a Cute Thanksgiving Turkey

Did you see that super cute turkey in the November issue of Parents Magazine?  I’m always looking for ways to make Thanksgiving a bigger deal, you know, like a more memorable holiday?  I want our home to have a spirit and culture of thankfulness.

So anyway, when I saw this turkey, I knew we had to make it!  I thought I’d share our step-by-step in photos to inspire and help you along.  I wanted to go ahead and make it now so that I could ask Gabriel what he was thankful for everyday and stick a feather in, instead of doing them all on Thanksgiving day.

Also important to note, this project was a little time consuming and uninteresting for my 3 year old.  He’s happy with the end result, and he had fun making the eyes, but there wasn’t much else he could do.  If you want to make one, here is how we did it!

What you’ll need:
9″ polystyrene ball
dark-brown yarn
light-brown yarn
felt; white, red, and orange
pompoms
craft sticks
construction or craft paper

1. Cut a 1″ sliver off the bottom of a 9″ polystyrene ball.
2. Wrap sphere neatly in dark-brown yarn, covering surface completely; knot on bottom.
   
3. Make a 4″ ball from light-brown yarn and attach to body with a wooden craft stick.
   
   
4. Create simple facial features using the felt: white circles (the size of a quarter), with 1/8″ pompoms for pupils make the eyes, orange triangles for beak, long red tear-drop shapes for the wattle.
   
5. Cut feather shapes from construction paper and write “I’m thankful for…” on each one.  (We made our feathers 6″ long and 2″ wide in the middle.)  Bend in half lengthwise to create seam, and glue wooden craft stick to the bottom third of the feather. (I made one feather and used it as a pattern for the rest.  I also wrote “I’m thankful for…” on each one before creasing and gluing on the craft sticks.)
   
   
6. Then we asked Gabriel what he was thankful for that day and stuck in a couple of feathers.  (Insert in a fan shape on turkey body.)  Here is a picture of our turkey a week later.

By Thanksgiving, he should have a full set of tail feathers!  I think this is going to be a great tradition for our family.  It cost me about $20 to make, but I think I’ll be able to reuse it for a few years, and just make new feathers every year.  I’d love to hear some of your favorite Thanksgiving traditions!