{Thanksgiving Craft} Hand Print Turkey Puppet

You can’t get by Thanksgiving without making the quintessential Thanksgiving craft for kids- The Hand Print Turkey. This simple and easy turkey can be made in a variety ways and can be simple or more elaborate. For my 18 month old I knew she wouldn’t sit still while I applied different color of paint to different fingers, so I decided we would go with tracing the hand print and coloring it in.

For this activity you will need:

• Construction paper
• Crayons
• Googly eye
• Craft Stick
• Glue

This activity:

• Promotes creativity
• Helps with fine motor development
• Explores holiday themes

I tried to trace her hand but she was not having it. So I decided I would just trace my own hand and let her color that in.

Being only 18 months, she has not mastered coloring. That is OKAY! When doing art projects with young toddlers (and any child for that matter) it is more about the process than the final product.

At this point she lost interest in coloring. I then started to wonder how I could make this more enjoyable for her. I decided to turn the turkey into a puppet which is something totally new to her.

After gluing on a googly eye and drawing a beak, I cut the turkey out and glued a craft stick to the back of it.

She thought the hand print turkey puppet was great fun. We practiced saying, “gobble gobble”. She kept pointing and saying “eye” to the googly eye.

This art project is timeless and there is really ways in which a child of any age can get in on the fun. When doing an art project with a toddler, relax and just let them enjoy the creative process. It may look more like a Picaso than a Davinci but that is okay, they learn so much by being able to be exposed to art materials and explore their creativity!

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