With Thanksgiving just around the corner, many families are looking for fun ways to celebrate the holiday with their children. Eve Bunting’s classic picture book, A Turkey for Thanksgiving, is a great way to get kids excited about Thanksgiving while also sparking their creativity through related arts and crafts activities. In this article, we’ll explore some of the top A Turkey for Thanksgiving activities that are perfect for celebrating with kids.
About the Book A Turkey for Thanksgiving
A Turkey for Thanksgiving, written by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Diane de Groat, is a humorous story about a moose named Mr. Moose who wants to find a real turkey to serve his wife Mrs. Moose for their Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Moose sets off into the forest with all his woodland friends to try to catch a turkey. After a hilarious search, the animals do finally find a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner, but in an unexpected and funny way that kids will love.
The book is a great way to introduce kids to the traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner while also teaching themes like caring for others teamwork and creativity when problems arise. The engaging illustrations and clever plot make it an excellent choice for a Thanksgiving family read-aloud.
Turkey Themed Arts and Crafts
Handprint Turkeys
A classic Thanksgiving craft is making handprint turkeys using paint and your child’s own handprint. Let them trace their handprint and fingers onto paper and turn it into the shape of a turkey with feathers and legs. Use brown, red, orange and yellow paint to decorate the feathers. Glue or draw on eyes, a beak and wattle. Make a whole flock of turkeys for a colorful Thanksgiving decoration.
Turkey Feather Art
Cut colorful fall leaves, tissue paper or construction paper into the shapes of feathers. Let kids glue them onto a turkey shape you’ve pre-drawn or let them draw their own turkey before decorating with the feather collage. It’s a great way to explore colors and textures while making their turkey unique.
Thankful Turkey
Use a paper plate brown craft paper or a printout of a turkey template and let kids decorate it with things they are thankful for. Glue on cut out hearts with words like “family”, “friends”, or “food”. Add glitter, stickers and more to make your Thankful Turkey.
Melted Crayon Turkeys
For an abstract turkey art project, peel the paper off old crayon stubs and let kids arrange the crayon pieces into the shape of a turkey body on wax paper. Then bake the creation in the oven until melted – the crayon pieces will bleed together to create a unique turkey.
Clothespeg Turkeys
Turn colorful clothespins into a fun turkey character. Use large clothespins for the body and several smaller ones to make the feathers. Glue on googly eyes and red craft foam for a wattle and snood. Make a whole parade of peg turkeys for some silly Thanksgiving decor.
Pinecone Turkeys
Head outside and gather pinecones, leaves and acorn tops to turn into a woodsy turkey craft. Glue pinecones together into the shape of a turkey, then decorate with fall leaves for feathers and an acorn cap for the head. Use twigs for legs if desired. It’s a natural Thanksgiving craft kids will love.
Turkey Track Treats
Make edible turkeys by dipping apple slices or pear wedges into peanut butter, then into crushed graham crackers to look like tracks. Arrange apple or pear slices into the shape of a turkey for a healthy, interactive snack kids can devour.
Paper Bag Turkeys
Brown paper lunch bags make an easy turkey craft. Stuff the bag with newspaper or tissue paper to make a round turkey body shape. Let kids decorate the bag with colored paper, feathers, sequins and more before adding eyes and a beak. An instant turkey bag buddy!
Turkey Themed Games and Activities
Turkey Bowling
Set up a classic bowling game but use plastic bottle ‘turkeys’ as the pins. Decorate 10 empty bottles to look like colorful turkeys. You can even fill them with beans, rice or beads to make them more sturdy. Let kids try to knock down the turkey pins with a ball for some active indoor fun.
Turkey Tracks Relay Race
Make large cardboard turkey feet and have kids strap them on for a silly relay race. Time kids as they waddle across the room in their turkey feet or have them balance a “feather” (bean bag) on the turkey feet as they walk. Turkey feet relay races will get everyone laughing.
Turkey Feather Balance Challenge
See how many feathers (strips of paper) kids can balance on their hand, arm or head. Make it harder by having them walk around a designated path with the feathers balanced. It’s a fun activity inspired by turkeys with impressive feathers.
The Great Turkey Escape
Create a fun obstacle course that represents a turkey trying to escape from the farmer before Thanksgiving. Set up tunnels to run through, ropes to hop over or pillows to hop on. Time kids as they race through the turkey escape course for some active holiday fun.
Turkey Sounds
Have a contest to see who can come up with the most creative gobble. Record kids making their best turkey calls. Play them back and have everyone vote on the most inventive and realistic turkey sound. Gobble along with the recording for some goofy fun.
Turkey Track Matching Game
Cut out different sizes of brown paper turkey feet and glue onto index cards in pairs. Flip the cards out on the table and let kids match up the identical turkey tracks. For more of a challenge, cut larger sets of matching tracks. A great turkey-themed memory game.
Enjoy Thanksgiving with A Turkey for Thanksgiving Fun
A Turkey for Thanksgiving is a charming book that helps kick off the Thanksgiving season for families. Use it as inspiration for fun turkey-themed arts, crafts, games and activities. With these creative ideas, kids will have a blast celebrating Thanksgiving inspired by the playful story. What better way to give thanks than by making lasting memories together? Gobble, gobble!
a turkey for thanksgiving: 16
activities: 18
thanksgiving: 28
kids: 13
turkey: 35
eve bunting: 3
arts and crafts: 5
games: 3