With Thanksgiving nearing, it’s a great time of year to focus on our many blessings. These Turkey Pencils are a fun Thanksgiving craft to do with your kids plus a fun way to open up conversation about thankfulness.
How to Make Turkey Pencils
Materials Needed:
- Pencils
- Pom pom
in assorted colors
- Googly eyes
- Felt
- Hot glue gun
- Scissors
- Red ribbon
, optional
Before starting, heat your hot glue gun. I feel like there should be an age rating on hot glue guns like there are on video games. Since I’m crafting with 7 and 9 year olds, my hot glue gun is rated PG. They’re pretty great crafters, and I know that with supervision I can trust them to use it safely. But it’s up to you if you want to holster the glue gun when your young crafters are around.
To begin, you’ll need to create the body for your turkey. Using pom pom in assorted colors is a quick and easy way to make your turkey. However, you can opt to use a pom pom maker to add another DIY element to your lil’ gobbler.
Cut out a diamond-shape out of orange felt to serve as the turkey’s beak. You’ll fold it in half & glue the bottom half onto the pom pom. Having the top half of the beak free will allow for lots of gobbling. I chose to put a small dab of glue on the inside of my beak to keep the triangle shape.
Attach 2 googly eyes to your turkey using your hot glue gun.
After making mine, my daughter pointed out that the eyes were stickers and all I had to do was peel off the backing. Adding to my thankful list “Children who are smarter than their mother.”
Now for the feathers! I wanted my turkey pencil to have multiple colors for its feathers, so I used a variety of felt. I cut 5 feather shaped pieces. Don’t be scared of cutting your own. They’re basically ovals with a point.
To attach the feathers, I first glued them to each other using my hot glue gun. I glued them at the bottom so feathers can rustle in the wind.
I had better luck sandwiching the pencil in between the pom pom turkey body and the feathers. It does eliminate use of the pencil’s eraser, but when you’re writing what you’re thankful for there are no mistakes.
We added a bow with red ribbon, but that’s totally optional. You could also add a wattle (you know, the red thingy under a turkey’s beak) with a bit of red felt to your turkey pencils.
My girls and I had a great time crafting these Turkey Pencils for Thanksgiving. I want them to know that it’s more than just a day to eat pumpkin pie, and incorporate thankfulness throughout their days. These Turkey Pencils are a great craft for writing out all your many blessings and having some fun together.
If you love “thankful” activities with your kids, check out our Thankful Turkey Box too.
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