Cute Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

I pulled out my cute Thanksgiving turkey napkin rings with the toilet paper roll base this week. My children made this cute Thanksgiving turkey craft when they were in kindergarten. My son graduates from high school this year! I like to use the napkin rings at our meals during the whole month of November. We don’t just save the napkin rings for Thanksgiving day.

The year my son built his toilet paper turkey, we made napkin ring sets for all of the grandparents and extended family. We brought them with us to our family Thanksgiving meal. My in-laws still have their napkin rings too.

If you make these Thanksgiving turkey crafts with your preschool or kindergarten class, use them during a school snack celebration then send them home. If you are building these with a whole class, you may want to pre-make certain steps. You will need two days to let paint and glue dry. Or, you could do some work at the beginning of the day and finish construction towards the end of the day.

Thanksgiving Turkey Materials

• toilet paper or paper towel rolls cut into 2 inch wide rings.
• brown and yellow tempera paint
• brown pipe cleaners (for the feet, optional)
• red felt
• assorted colored feathers (we used red, yellow, and orange)
• googly eyes, 3 mm
• wood craft spoons ~3/5 inches in height (I used THESE)
• Elmer’s glue or hot glue gun

Thanksgiving Turkey Directions

1. Paint the wooden craft spoons yellow. Let dry.
2. Paint the toilet paper roll rings brown. Let dry. (Steps 1 and 2 can be prepped ahead of time if you do not want the mess and clean-up of lots of tempera paint.)
3. Cut the red felt into a tear drop shape about 1-inch tall.
4. After the paint dries, glue the red felt tear drop shaped piece onto the middle of the spoon end of the wooden stick. Glue two googly eyes above the red waddle. Let dry flat.
5. Glue the yellow wooden stick turkey face to the side of the painted toilet paper roll piece. You may need to hold the craft spoon in place for a few minutes, so the face does not slide to the side. ** Note: Hot glue might be a better option here since the Elmer’s glue takes longer to dry and hold.
6. If you are adding the pipe cleaner feet, you will need an adult to poke two holes at the base of the wooden spoon. Thread the pipe cleaner through the two holes, so a loop runs around the inside of the toilet paper roll. Fold and bend each pipe cleaner end into feet shape with 3 toes. Cut any excess length of pipe cleaner off.
7. Glue 3 feathers onto the back of the toilet paper roll and arrange, so the feathers are fanned out.
8. Roll a napkin and slid into the napkin ring and set at each place setting for your Thanksgiving feast!

Our toilet paper roll turkeys have been sitting at our Thanksgiving dinner table for about 15 years! These napkin rings are a cherished memento from when my children were little. Even though you need adult help for the gluing steps, it is such a cute Thanksgiving project. The final turkeys have distinct personalities and add fun to your holiday table.

Since Christmas is right around the corner, you might like some other holiday craft ideas. Another easy holiday craft for younger students is bags of REINDEER FOOD. We made these HOLIDAY SNOW GLOBE TOPPERS in 4th grade.