Thanksgiving crafts are all about the turkeys here and this easy handprint paper plate turkey craft is our newest addition.
Handprints are a great way to paint with kids. You can keep them as a keepsake (look how small your kids hands were!) Or you could even do this as a family with each person adding their handprint.
To make this turkey craft easier you can also use our free turkey template to help you make the turkey’s body.
What You'll Find on This Page
Handprint Plate Turkey Craft Tutorial
This cute little turkey craft is really easy to make following our tutorial. While you’ll need an adult to help with cutting out, coloring, gluing and sticking can all be done by young kids so I think this would be a good one for preschoolers and probably toddlers too. Of course there’s no reason why older kids can’t make this – it’s exactly the kind of thing my eight year old enjoys as well!
Supplies To Make A Handprint Turkey Craft
To make this craft you will need:
- Paper Plate
- Kids paints – I used red and yellow
- Plate or tray for paint
- Scissors
- Coloured markers or crayons
- Glue
- Turkey Template (See below)
Free Turkey Craft Template
For the main body of this craft I’ve used our free turkey template. You can print as many copies of this as you like which is handy if you’re planning on making a lot of turkey crafts!
You can print your turkey out onto paper but you might want to choose cardstock instead if you want it to be a little more hard wearing.
How To Make A Handprint Turkey Craft
Start by printing out your turkey template. You can of course just draw a turkey’s body shape onto brown construction paper or similar but I liked having something ready prepared for this.
Colour in your turkey. I’ve used brown for the main parts of the turkey’s body, yellow for the beak and red for the snood.
Cut out the main part of your turkey’s body.
Cut your paper plate in half. I find it helps if I fold my paper plate in half first to give me a guide to cut along.
Pour some paint into a plate or tray to make it easier to access. I’ve used red and yellow which means that it can be mixed to become orange, you can go with whatever colours your child likes though or if you are doing this with more than one person why not give them each a different colour and then they can all add their own recognisable handprints to each paper plate.
Carefully dip your hand into the paint and then use it to make the feathers for your turkey, keeping the palm of your hand near the centre of the paper plate and moving it so that your fingerprints are nearer to the edges.
Once the paint has dried on your paper plate stick your turkey’s body onto it using glue.
More Turkey Craft Ideas
We’ve made quite a few turkey paper plate crafts, I really like this one that’s been printed using left over bubble wrap – you’ll find a video of it being made linked to this page too.
My kids made these feather painted turkeys which was a fun way to try painting with a different material.
Or why not check out this paper bag turkey craft that would make a great puppet too.
Paper Plate Turkey Craft
Equipment
- Scissors
- Glue
- Colored marker pens
- Kids paints
Ingredients
- Turkey template
- Paper plate
Instructions
- Print out the free turkey template.
- Colour the template in and cut it out.
- Cut your paper plate in half.
- Pour some paint onto your plate or tray and dip your hands into it.
- Make handprints around the paper plate with the palm of your hand in the middle and your fingers near the edge to make feathers.
- Glue your turkey shape onto your paper plate.
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