Easy Paper Plate Turkey Craft For Toddlers
DIY Thanksgiving Turkey Activity for Kids
This easy Thanksgiving paper plate turkey craft requires just a few basic materials— paper plates, tissue paper, and construction paper.
It’s so simple to make and (almost) mess-free!
I love making crafts with my daughter for each holiday.
However, I’ve always found it difficult to pick out activities that she can actually participate in.
I usually end up doing most of the crafting.
Your toddler can make this paper plate turkey craft with only minimal prompting and help from you!
Plus it’s a quick activity—your little one won’t lose interest while doing this fun turkey project.
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I’m always looking for fun crafts my two-year-old can participate in. Even better if she can do them on her own or with minimal help from me.
This Thanksgiving paper plate turkey craft is really easy for toddlers to make.
Materials for Thanksgiving Turkey Craft
- Paper plate
- Brown construction paper
- Orange construction paper (optional)
- Tissue paper (assorted colors)
- Glue stick
- Googly eyes (optional)
- Pencil, pen or marker for tracing the hand
- Scissors
- Red marker (for drawing the wattle!)
I had all of these supplies already at home but if you’re looking for a cheap and easy craft, everything can be found at the Dollar Tree or your local dollar store.
My daughter does art projects at her own kid-table. A table made specifically for little bodies is a great place for kids’ crafts and projects. My daughter loves the Kid Kraft table that she got for Christmas last year.
If you’re familiar with the DIY projects on this blog, you’ll know that I LOVE paper plate crafts.
Check out some of these other fun projects for toddlers using paper plates:
Instructions for Toddler Paper Plate Turkey Craft
1.Make turkey feathers out of tissue paper
The very first step in this project is making the turkey feathers. You can do this using pieces of different colored tissue paper.
I used typical fall colors—red, orange, and yellow—but any colors will work for this craft.
There are multiple ways to create these tissue paper turkey feathers.
You can cut pieces up using scissors, tear them in strips, or even bunch them up.
My daughter and I tore up pieces of tissue paper with our hands into all different sizes and shapes.
Once we had a bunch of tissue paper pieces, we put them all into a container.
My toddler thoroughly enjoyed being able to rip up the tissue paper! I think this was her favorite part of the activity.
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2.Glue the tissue paper feathers onto a paper plate
After you have enough tissue paper turkey feathers, the next step is to attach them to the paper plate.
We used glue sticks to affix the tissue paper to our paper plates.
Your toddler can probably do this part themselves.
The best part is that the tissue paper can go anywhere on the plate (and your toddler’s probably will go everywhere) and it will still look like a turkey when the project is finished.
3. Make the turkey body
The next step is to make the body for your turkey.
I traced my and my daughter’s hands on a piece of brown construction paper to be used as the turkey’s body and head and cut them out.
4. Put Your Paper Plate Turkey Together
Take your turkey body and glue it on top of the turkey feathers on the plate.
Make sure that enough of the feathers are peeking out from behind the turkey (so that it actually resembles a turkey)!
Alternatively, you could glue down the construction paper hand first and layer the tissue paper feathers on top. However, we did it this way because I like the idea of being able to see the whole hand as a reminder of how little my daughter was at this age!
5. Add The Turkey’s Face
Now decorate the turkey’s face to make it look more like a turkey.
I used orange construction paper to cut triangle beaks and drew turkey wattles with a red marker.
To finish it off, I glued a googly eye onto each turkey.
You could also go a simpler route and just draw on the eyes, a beak, and a wattle.
If you’re thinking about Thanksgiving, that means Christmas is just around the corner—don’t miss out on these 10 Fun Christmas Traditions to Start This Year
I love how this simple turkey project turned out!
If you have extra tissue paper left over, save it and use it for another fun craft like this DIY Tissue Paper Fall Wreath or Fall Tissue Paper Tree.
Have you tried this or a similar craft? What’s your favorite easy Thanksgiving craft or activity to do with your toddler? Let me know in the comments!
Related Thanksgiving Posts:
- How To Make A Gratitude Jar: A Thankfulness Activity for Young Kids
- How To Teach Toddlers & Preschoolers To Be Thankful
- Thanksgiving Traditions To Start With Your Family