Turn Children's Hand Prints into Thanksgiving Turkey Decorations

One of my favorite crafts as a youngster in elementary school was creating a hand print on a piece of construction paper. The spread fingers make the feathers on a turkey while the thumb area turns into the head and neck. The palm becomes the body. With just a few strokes of a pen, the turkey is outline is complete and ready to decorate with crayons or paints. Creative ideas for decorating the turkey include using glue and pieces of felt to enhance the turkey. Add feathers for a more creative flare or cut it out of one color of construction paper and glue to the same shape of cardboard to make standup place settings with names for child friendly Thanksgiving Day crafts.

Construction paper or Paper plate

Pencil

Black Marker

Red Marker or Paint

Kids safe markers, paints, or crayons

Optional: Felt, glue, feathers, cardboard

1. Place the child's hand with the fingers spread apart on the construction paper or paper plate. Carefully trace around the child's hand. Toddlers will need you to trace their hand while youngsters will be able to trace their own hand print.

2. Use the marker to add the turkey's legs, eye, beak and warbler.

3. Let the children decorate their turkey hand prints to display for Thanksgiving.

To make the turkey handprints into place settings: Cut out an identical cardboard shape to the turkey with a one and a half inch extension on the bottom. This extension should be longer across the bottom than the handprint to help balance the place setting. Fold the one and a half inch extension back so that it becomes the bottom that rests on the table while the turkey faces towards the plate. Glue the decorated turkey onto the card board to complete the place setting.