How to Make a Hand and Footprint Turkey Craft

Hand and footprint turkey crafts are a great way for children to get involved in decorating for Thanksgiving. With a few materials and a couple of minutes, you can have these delightful projects done, and ready to hang up around your home. You could even laminate your turkey and use it as a place mat.

Things You'll Need

• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Glue
• Black marker
• Hole puncher
• String or yarn
• Wiggly craft eyes

Instructions

1. Lay a piece of brown construction paper on the floor.

2. Use a pencil to trace your child's feet onto the piece of brown construction paper. Make sure that your child is wearing shoes when you trace his feet.

3. Cut out the two footprints on the brown construction paper.

4. Glue the heels of the two footprints directly on top of each other. Place the footprints one on top of the other, but so the toe parts of the footprints flare out in opposite directions. When you are done, the footprints' heels will be together and the toes will gradually flare out from one another. The heels form the turkey's head, and the rest of the footprints form the turkey's body.

5. Pick out three different colors of construction paper. These can be any colors you like, but fall colors like orange, red or yellow will look best. Lay the three sheets of multi-colored construction paper on a flat surface.

6. Trace two hands onto each piece of construction paper with a pencil.

7. Use scissors to cut out the six hand prints. These will form the feathers of your turkey.

8. Glue the hand prints to the back of the turkey's body with the fingers pointing out. You can vary the colors anyway you like, and can glue some hand prints farther onto the back than others to make the feathers different heights.

9. Make the shape of a waddle on red construction paper, and cut it out with scissors.

10. Draw a beak and two little turkey feet on a piece of orange construction paper, and cut them out.

11. Glue two wiggly craft eyes onto the turkey's head, and then apply the waddle, beak and feet to the turkey's body.

12. Use a black marker to draw family members' names on the tail feathers or to make other decorations on your turkey if you want.

13. Use a hole puncher to make one hole in the top of your turkey's head, or onto one of the feathers of your turkey's tail.

14. Tie a piece of string or yarn to the hole on your turkey, and secure it with a knot. You can use this string to hang your turkey up if you like. If you will be using your turkey in a different way, you can skip these last two steps.

Tips & Warnings

• Help your child trace his hands and feet if he is too young to do it himself.

• Let the glue dry completely before moving on to other steps.

• Supervise children when they are using scissors and hole punchers.

Resources

• Thanksgiving Crafts