Thankful Turkey

When a child thinks of November turkeys often come to mind. As parents we want to teach our children to be thankful for what they have. My 3 year old was asked this past weekend to recite something she was thankful for. She paused for a long time while looking at the line of kids that has just gone before her. She fixed her ones on a girl and said, “I’m thankful for family”. As a Mother of course I am proud, but she chose that answer because the other girl had already said the same thing. So, I realized I need to teach her what it really means to be thankful. Since she already associates Thanksgiving with turkey, we made Thankful Turkeys. I began with explaining to her what it means to be thankful. I pointed out all of the “material” things she has that she enjoys and asked her if she is happy she has them. I then moved on to family members and named some of her friends. After getting her excited about all of this, I was able to point out to her that since they make her all happy, then she is thankful she has them. After she was able to decide what she was thankful for the most, we were able to put it on a turkey. Enjoy this Thanksgiving craft with your child.

Thankful Turkey

Materials:

Toilet paper roll

Construction paper

Wiggly eyes

Marker

Trace your child’s hands. You can do just one set of hands or you can do multiple sets to layer. Cut out the hands. On one hand write something your child is thankful for on each finger. Glue the hands behind the toilet paper roll to resemble feathers. If you choose to do more than one set of hands, just layer a new set on top of each other and make sure the hand with thanks is on top. Cut out a triangle shape for the beak and a red oval for the wattle. Just add wiggly eyes and you have a turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving!