Thanksgiving Craft for Preschoolers: Make a Pinecone Turkey

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is displaying the holiday crafts that my daughters have made for me over the years. I recently went into the crawlspace to take out my bag of Thanksgiving decorations and came across the Pinecone Turkey that my younger daughter made for me in preschool. The adorable little turkey has taken center stage on my dining room table every Fall since she first brought it home for me five years ago. This holiday craft is perfect for Preschoolers as it is quite simple yet very fun to make. Read on to learn how you can help your little one, or class full of preschool students make a cute and festive Pinecone Turkey.

What You Need For A Pinecone Turkey: OneClean and round shaped pinecone with a relatively flat bottom per Turkey, Four Light brown pipe cleaners per Turkey, Craft feathers in Fall colors such as dark brown, deep orange, and medium beige (about six per turkey) Artificial Autumn Leaves (approximately eight leaves per Pinecone Turkey) Google eyes, Pink construction paper, scissors, and glue

Teacher Or Parent Preparation For Pinecone Turkey Craft: Though this craft is so simple that preschoolers need a modicum of help from adults, there is a bit of prep work that should be done ahead of time. On a dark pink piece of construction paper, small round circles should be cut out to attach to the end of the pipe cleaner turkey neck. Two light brown pipe cleaner per Pinecone Turkey should be cut into eight one inch equal lengths to be used as the turkey's feet. One pipe cleaner per turkey should be cut into a six inch length to create the turkey's head. Taking care of these steps ahead of time will ensure that each child has nicely shaped and sized craft pieces to work with.

Making The Pinecone Turkey: The first step in creating the pinecone turkey is to attach the Autumn colored feathers to the side top of the pinecone. Laying the pinecone on it's side, help the preschooler to use a few drops of glue per feather and attach them very close together on the back third of the pinecone. The flat bottom of the pinecone can also have a few feathers glued to it to create a fun fan like appearance. The next step is to attach the turkey's feet. Help the child to wind the three one inch sections of pipe cleaner to two one inch pieces. The straight ends can be inserted into the pinecone and secured with a bit of glue. After the glue dries from the feathers and feet, seven or eight artificial Fall leaves should be glued to the "bottom" of the pinecone overlapping each other. The last pipe cleaner should be curled on each end and one end can be glued to the front of the pinecone to create the little turkey's head. Once the pipe cleaner head is firmly in place, one google eye should be glued on each side for the turkey's eyes and the pink round construction paper shape glued to the bottom of the top curl.

This adorable Thanksgiving preschool craft is easy to make and will be enjoyed and cherished for many Thanksgivings to come.