Turkey Puppet Craft & Story

Inside: An easy turkey puppet craft for kids just right for inspiring Thanksgiving pretend play.

Kids will love this turkey puppet craft - it's fun to make and to play with. Just right for preschool, kindergarten, or first grade aged kids.(Disclosure: Books and Giggles is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.)

We created this cute little turkey puppet craft to get ready for Thanksgiving. These little guys are fairly sturdy and invite lots of pretend play.

To spark those little imaginations, you can read aloud a turkey book such as 10 Fat Turkeys (affiliate). This giggle-inducing Thanksgiving picture book is a silly countdown story that preschoolers and kindergartners will love.

Or you could sing a song like Five Little Turkeys:

Turkey Puppet Craft

Materials

Here’s everything you’ll need for each turkey puppet:

  • 3 Notched craft sticks (affiliate)
  • 1 Regular craft stick
  • Paint & paintbrushes (Acrylic paint works the best, but be sure to put the kids in smocks or old t-shirts if you use it.)
  • Puffy paint (affiliate) or glitter glue for embellishments
  • Glue – we just used school glue
  • Construction paper: brown, yellow, red
  • Scissors
  • Googly eyes

 

RELATED: Spin Art Turkey Craft

 

Preparation

1. Cut each of the notched craft sticks in half. This is easier than it sounds. I used kid scissors to cut into the stick on each side, then snapped it in half by hand. Trim any edges that are overly sharp.

2. For each puppet, cut out 2 brown circles approximately 2 inches in diameter. Also, cut out a yellow beak and a red wattle. (Does anyone else call the wattle the gobbler? No? Just me.)

 

Instructions

1. Paint the craft sticks. Let dry.

painting a craft stick "turkey feather"
2. Then, decorate each “feather” with dots of puffy paint or glitter glue. Let dry. (Glitter glue dries faster than puffy paint.)

 

RELATED: Story-Inspired Glue Dot Practice

 

4. Glue the craft sticks onto a brown circle, as shown.

turkey puppet instructions collage
NOTE: I forgot to take photos of the process, so these are a quick re-take with unpainted sticks. Ideally, you should paint the sticks BEFORE gluing them onto the paper.

5. Next, glue another brown circle onto the top so that the craft sticks are sandwiched in between the 2 brown circles.

6. While the glue is still wet, arrange the “feathers” so that they are spaced well, and make sure the handle is fairly straight. Let dry.

7. Glue on googly eyes, beak, and wattle.

Kids will love this turkey puppet craft - it's fun to make and to play with. Just right for preschool, kindergarten, or first grade aged kids.

8. Time to play turkey!

Kids will love this turkey puppet craft - it's fun to make and to play with. Just right for preschool, kindergarten, or first grade aged kids.

I love the fall colors in the turkey feathers, but you could let the kids get creative with a wider variety of colors. A pink and purple one decorated with glitter glue would be cute too.

You could also use these on a Thanksgiving kids table – they’d be lots of fun dropped into this pilgrim hat crayon cup, for instance.

What will you do with your little turkey puppets?

Happy Crafting!

-Heather

 

Kids will love this turkey puppet craft - it's fun to make and to play with. Just right for preschool, kindergarten, or first grade aged kids.

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