Turkey Fine Motor Activity and Craft

Are you ready? I’ve been holding off on sharing Thanksgiving activities until Halloween was over, but I’m ready to get started. After all, I see many people are already searching for Christmas activities. I’m not quite ready for that yet, but Thanksgiving I can do! Many of the activities I’ll be sharing this week will remain out throughout the month as play invitations for the kids to choose during independent playtime.

If you know the history of Tinker’s nickname, you know that we call her Tinker because she has always loved playing with small objects and learning how things work. This simple fine motor turkey activity was put together just for her, but I bet you know a little one who’d like it, too.

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GET A FULL WEEK OF THANKSGIVING THEME ACTIVITIES IN OUR PRINTABLE PRESCHOOL LESSON PLANS.

Materials for Turkey Craft

• Empty toilet paper roll
• Googly eyes
• Scissors
• Long feathers
• Rubber Band
• Hot glue gun or craft glue, whichever you prefer
• Piece of brown felt cut into a square large enough to be folded over the end of the toilet paper roll
• Small scrap of orange craft foam or felt cut into a triangle
• Hole punch

Assembling the Turkey Body

Older children may want to make the turkey with you. Since this was for Tinker I assembled the turkey body myself. It took about 3 minutes. First I cut about an inch off of the toilet paper roll. I secured a piece of brown felt over the front end of the turkey using the rubber band. Then I hot glued the googly eyes and craft foam to the smaller tube. Next I attached the head of the turkey near the end with the brown felt. The brown felt made the turkey body secure enough to stand on its own. Otherwise I was going to attached two legs with chenille stems, but this wasn’t necessary. Finally I used the hole punch to make three rows of  holes on the opposite end of the turkey body. I only went two thirds of the way around the body, leaving the bottom of the roll without any holes.

Turkey Fine Motor Activity

As soon as Tinker saw the feathers she was eager to play with them, and she new exactly what to do with all those little holds in the turkey’s body.

Placing the ends of the feathers into those small holes is excellent fine motor practice.

Note that we did not add any covering the the back of the turkey. This was helpful in the event that one of the turkey feathers got stuck in a hole when Tinker was pulling them out to start over, which she did again and again that first afternoon. We were able to reach in the back and push it out, so she could keep recreating her little turkey.

And when your little one is finished, the turkey makes a beautiful little craft, too! We didn’t secure the loose ends because this activity will sit out with our Thanksgiving invitations to play throughout the month. However, you could add a little air dry clay to the inside of the turkey if you wanted to secure the feathers.

GET A FULL SET OF THANKSGIVING THEME ACTIVITIES

The 159-page Thanksgiving Lesson Plan Set includes hands-on activities and these additional printables:

1) Pumpkin Pie Letter Matching (in color and b/w)

2) Rhyming Turkey Game

3) Turkey Color Sorting Mats (in color and b/w)

4) Turkey Counting Mats 1-20 (in color and b/w)

5) Look at the Turkey Emergent Reader (3 variations)

6) How to Make a Pumpkin Pie Sequencing Cards (in color and b/w)

7) 0-35 Turkey Number Cards (4 variations)

8) Phoneme Segmentation Turkey Activity

9) Thanksgiving Taste Test Recording Sheet (in color and b/w)

10) Thanksgiving Picture-Word Cards (in color and b/w)

11) Thanksgiving Roll and Graph (2 variations, in color and b/w)

Also available on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Less stress, more connecting this holiday season? Yes, PLEASE!

From the arrival of fall to Halloween to Thanksgiving and Christmas, the last four months of the year can be a wonderful opportunity for making family memories and spending time together, but they can also be stressful as we try to collect ideas, recipes, and activities to try together.

Stephanie Morgan, founder of Modern Parents Messy Kids, a site that’s been voted Best Craft Blog in Parents Magazine and one of babble.com’s Top 50 Craft Mom Blogs, recently released a new eBook to help us have a little less stress and more time to connect with family this year.

Stephanie’s goal is to make it easier on all of us to enjoy the holidays with our kids. Hands-On Holidays is 100 pages full of her family’s very favorite ways to connect as a family over the holiday season. I love the convenience of having so many ideas in one place, and most of them are simple enough for even my toddler to participate in.

The book includes picture book suggestions, DIY decor, activities, and treats. Bonus sections also offer even more ideas to enjoy. Click here to view more details.

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