Easy Thanksgiving Turkey Handprint Painting for Kids
Looking for an easy but cute handprint turkey craft to try with your kids this time of year? Kids of all ages can make this fun craft this Thanksgiving time! Happy Thanksgiving!
The Easiest Thanksgiving Turkey Handprint Painting
Around Thanksgiving time, we always break out some kind of turkey craft project for the kids. They love doing anything with paint, and it’s a great way to get them excited about the holiday season.
Holidays can be pretty busy for parents and teachers even without the kids’ activities. So we like to keep crafts pretty easy, especially for younger kids. This little turkey is a fun Thanksgiving craft even for older kids though, too.
Fun Holiday Crafts with Kids
The festive season is a busy time of year, but holiday crafts are a great way to spend quality time with your kids! Crafts are also a fun way to practice fine motor skills for kids. The great thing about our kids crafts is that they should still have fun doing them while learning skills and being creative!
Great Homemade Decorations
We love making handprint crafts because the crafts have a personal touch from even little kids. Plus the little hands are what make them so cute! This easy Thanksgiving craft makes a very cute decoration for the fall season.
Anything with handprints is a wonderful way to make a cute keepsake. You can see over the years how their hands grow, and one day you will be shocked to look back on how tiny their hands once were. They also make great gifts for parents and grandparents!
Starting Your Thanksgiving Craft
This classic Thanksgiving craft is a fun project to prepare in the days leading up to Thanksgiving to help decorate. Or its a great activity to do with your kids on Thanksgiving Day! Either way, young kids have so much fun with the paint and feathers.
Pick a Background
First, you’ll want to decide what you want to make your turkey handprint art on. You can choose different color construction paper, white cardstock paper or any thicker paper. We also made a few turkeys on a small canvas that will be a little easier to keep as decorations over the years.
Grab the Brown Paint
To make the turkey’s body, cover your child’s hand in brown paint. We highly recommend washable paint. You can use a paintbrush to make sure their hand is completely covered, but not dripping with paint.
Older children will probably be able to make a clean handprint by themselves. For younger kids, you’ll need to hold their hand steady and press down each finger.
Add Some (Paper) Feathers
Finally, once the paint has completely dried, you can add some colorful feathers! An easy way to do this is by buying a pack of craft feathers. But if you don’t have craft feathers, you can easily make your own or your child can.
To make your own feathers out of paper, cut out a feather shape that’s essentially a long oval with two pointed ends. Fold the feather in half longways to create a crease and then cut the edges on each side about halfway to the crease. Your child can help with making the small cuts as a great way to practice using scissors (check out tips here).
Glue on the turkey’s feathers with regular white glue, but make sure they dry completely before moving your project. Young kids may need a little help to place the feathers.
Finishing Up Your Craft
Lastly, we added some googly eyes and a beak cut from yellow paper. But you can easily draw on an eye and beak with markers if you don’t have colored paper and googly eyes. Then, draw on some legs.
Our Best Tips for Painting Projects
Painting with little kids can seem intimidating if you’re not used to it. And honestly, it’s easier if you expect a mess from the beginning. But messy play like painting is great for their development!
One of the best ways to prepare for crafts with paint is to choose an area that’s easy to clean and place a plastic tablecloth to paint on. Then, have a piece of white paper next to your project for your child to paint whatever they want on. Young kids can get frustrated with handprint crafts if they don’t have any opportunities to finger paint how they want.
More Cute Thanksgiving Crafts
If you’re looking for more fun crafts this holiday, try our two other favorite turkey projects! The first Thanksgiving turkey craft is another great way to let your child paint. The second project is a wonderful way to make turkeys if you don’t have any paint (or simply don’t want to use it).
