Turkey Table Toppers

Here's an easy craft to keep the kids busy this Thanksgiving. Once again, this idea is brought to you by our wonderful library lady, Mrs. D. (I hope she isn't offended that I love her ideas and run with them!) These turkey table toppers are fairly quick and easy for little ones to create without too much parent prep. I think that it would be cute to have child-made place cards for everyone by simply adding names to the tail feathers. That would surely make for a happy Thanksgiving table.

The good news is that most of the items needed for this project are things you likely have at home. The only item you may not have are the Bingo markers. I assume that the library ordered these Bingo daubers, but my suggestion is that you save yourself a lot of money and get some from Dollar Tree! I bought ours there over two years ago and they are still working great. (I normally see these in the school supply aisle.) We have red, orange, green, blue, and purple. The only color I have seen at Dollar Tree that I did not purchase was black since I figured that would have limited craft possibilities. Personally, I think this was a great investment for kids' crafts so I would definitely recommend getting some!

{Turkeys by Logan, 4, and Mia, 6}

Materials:

• TP tube
• small paper plate
• scissors
• tacky glue (or school glue)
• yellow/orange construction paper
• brown construction paper
• pencil
• 2 googly eyes (or eyeball stickers)
• Bingo markers (or regular markers)
• red pipe cleaner (or construction paper)
• something to protect work surface (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut a small paper plate in half. One half is needed per turkey, so if you are only making one turkey, set this aside for another project. (One option is this paper plate turkey.)
2. Cut a toilet paper tube in half. If you want to make lots of turkeys but you are short on TP tubes, you can also cut them into thirds. Using your scissors, make two small notches on one end of the tube, about 1/4" deep. They will be spaced equally apart so that the paper plate will be able to slide into the notches after it is decorated. (If you need a project for leftover tube sections, try making bird feeders.)
3. Make a beak out of yellow (or orange) construction paper. The easiest way to do this is to cut a strip of paper and then cut a smaller rectangle from the strip. Then, fold the rectangle and cut a triangle so that the fold is the base of the triangle. When glued onto paper, this will make a 3-D beak.
4. Draw and cut out a turkey body from brown construction paper. The basic shape is a small circle on top of a larger circle and it should be about 4 1/2" tall. (Note: Mrs. D.'s is thinner and reminds me of a bowling pin and mine looks a bit more like a fat pear, but I think they both are fine. Also, hers is flat on the bottom and mine is rounded, and they both seem to stand up nicely, so take your pick.) Tip: If you are planning to make more than one turkey, use the first one as a template and trace around it to make more.
5. For the wattle, we used a scrap of red pipe cleaner. If you want to use pipe cleaner, you may need to cut a piece about 1" long. Tip: I keep left over bits of them in an old plastic peanut butter jar for times when we need just a small piece. This way, we don't have to cut up a perfectly good pipe cleaner. Tip: If you don't have pipe cleaners, you could also make a wattle from red construction paper, cut into a kidney bean shape.
6. Have your child decorate the half paper plate using the Bingo markers. It doesn't matter which side of the plate gets decorated. Tell kids that they do NOT need to press hard. Tip: If the ink isn't flowing well, make sure the cap is secure, and shake the Bingo markers. If this doesn't work, gently tap, tap, tap the marker until the ink starts flowing. Set aside to dry. Tip: Sometimes markers will bleed through, so you might want to protect your table before starting. I like to use cereal box liners, but you can also use newspaper, an old vinyl tablecloth, or wax paper. Tip: If you don't have Bingo markers, let your child decorate the plate with regular markers.

   

   {Mia made a rainbow turkey.}

7. Have your child decorate the turkey's body. Mrs. D. provided eyeball stickers for a no-mess option. (Logan's make me smile because one is upside down.) Mia used googly eyes and adhered them with tacky glue. (Tip: If you don't have eyeball stickers or googly eyes, use a black marker to draw eyes.) Next, both kids glued down their beaks. Mia then added her red pipe cleaner wattle. (Tip: If you don't have a pipe cleaner, use red construction paper or draw one with a red marker.) Lay flat until glue is completely dry.
8. Kids may need help with assembling their turkeys. Place some glue on the back of the turkey's body and affix it to the tube, making sure that the two slits are on the top of the tube, and are to the left and right of the body. Slide the paper plate, flat side down, into the two slits so that the colorful side is facing the front.
9. Display your child's turkey table topper. You may want to make several for all of your Thanksgiving guests.

One final thought: I know it has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but Mia's rainbow tail feathers inspired me, and I could totally see tweaking this craft and making it into a showy peacock. To do this, use pretty blue paper in place of brown. Skip the wattle, and add lots of colorful Bingo marker dots to the body. For a final flourish, add a blue feather on top of the peacock's head, and voila! A pretty peacock!

Have a blessed and safe Thanksgiving!

Paper Plate Turkey

Logan made this feathered fellow at the library before Thanksgiving, and I am obviously late in posting it. Besides being super swamped with holiday preparations, I have had problems getting pictures loaded onto the blog, severely limiting my ability to add new posts. I think I have the issue resolved, so fingers crossed.

Materials:

• small paper plate
• scissors
• brown construction paper
• yellow construction paper
• other colors of construction paper
• glue stick
• 2 eye stickers (or googly eyes)
• decorative scissors (optional)

Directions:

1. Cut off approximately 1/3 of the paper plate.
2. From brown paper, cut a turkey body. To do this, draw a circle (somewhat smaller than the paper plate) with a smaller circular shape on top for the head.  
3. Cut several feathers from colored paper. If desired, you can use decorative scissors for this.
4. Cut a beak from yellow paper. Ours is a diamond shape, folded in half.
5. Assemble your turkey. The straight edge of the cut plate is the bottom. Glue the feathers along the curved top edge of the plate, and then glue on the body. Next, glue on the beak and add the eye stickers or googly eyes. (If using googly eyes, I suggest using white glue instead of a glue stick.)
6. To make it more interactive, Logan's turkey has a song glued to the back, to be sung to the tune of "Short'nin' Bread." This is optional, but it adds to the craft.

"My little turkey 
has feathers, feathers.
My little turkey
has a feather of (color)."

Paperback Pumpkins, Apples, and Pears

I learned how to make paperback pumpkins at our local library recently, and I was so excited by the first one that I quickly returned to buy a stack of books to make more pumpkins. Once I knew the basic steps, I was also able to make apples and pears so now I have a total of 7 fruit shapes on top of my kitchen cabinets. They are very festive for fall.

{The paperback pumpkin that started it all...}

 Materials: 

{Paperback Apple}

• paperback books
• scratch paper
• pencil
• scissors
• sponge (I used an old kitchen sponge cut in half.)
• acrylic paint (I used orange, yellow, red, and green.)
• tray/plate to hold paint
• cup of water
• sticks/twigs
• curling ribbon, twine, or other ribbon
• hot glue gun
• newspaper to protect work surface

Directions: 

1.) Gather some old paperback books, the more beat up the better.

{These teen books were just ten cents each at our library.}

2.) Decide which shape you want to make (apple, pear, pumpkin). Fold a piece of paper in half like a hamburger. (I re-used some printer paper for this.) Draw your shape on one half, cut it out, and unfold it. Make sure it looks the way you want, or make changes if desired. (Note: Definitely be sure that your template will fit the pages of your book.) Now is also a good time to warm up your glue gun.

{Some of the titles are pretty funny: Help! I'm Trapped in My Gym Teacher's Body.}

3.) Tear off the front cover and then begin tracing the template onto the first page using a pencil. Cut out a small section (say 20 pages or so, depending on the sharpness of your scissors and how many pages you can comfortably cut). Continue tracing and cutting small sections until the entire book has been done. Tear off the back cover and any remaining parts of the cover on the spine. (Note: I would start cutting at the bottom, work my way up to the top, and once I got close enough, just tear off the remaining section to the point where it meets the spine, which saves some cutting.)

{Tracing my first pear...}

{Cutting out a pumpkin}

4.) Now for painting. This step takes the longest. First, protect your work surface with newspaper. You may also want to wear old clothes since acrylic paint will stain. Pour some paint onto a tray or plate (I used old Styrofoam meat packaging at home and a paper plate when I made my first one at the library.) Dip you sponge into the cup of water, then dip it into the paint, and dab it onto your tray/plate so that you are applying thin coats only. Sponge paint both sides of each page. I did just outside edges, leaving white space in the centers of each pear, apple, or pumpkin shape. (Note: Thin coats of paint work best because it dries faster and the pages are less likely to stick together. On my first apple, I experimented with a sponge brush in place of a sponge. It worked, but the paint went on much, much wetter and took forever to dry -- over 24 hours and that was with the help of a hair dryer -- so I don't recommend this method because once you start, you want to finish.)

{Sponge painting the pear}

{This apple I painted with a sponge brush, but it was not my preferred method.}

5.) Use a generous amount of hot glue along the spine of the book and then fold the book backward pressing the spine together. The pages should now fan out. Fold parts or individual pages back and forth as needed to get the look you want. (Note: As I made more of these, I just started folding the book back and forth along the binding before even starting the paint process because looser bindings seem to be easier to work with. Sometimes you just have to keep playing with it until it looks the way you want. If it isn't perfect, that's okay, the final step really makes it look finished. Plus, if there are sections pages that lay open and don't look the way you want them to, you can just point this toward the back of your display, unless it is your table centerpiece.) 

 

{A Finished Pear}

6.) Put the finishing touches on your pumpkin, apple, or pear. Add a stick to the center (or wherever you can get it to fit) using hot glue. If needed, glue a page or two around it. Green curling ribbon looks nice for a pumpkin and really makes it look special and finished. I had some wide sparkly green ribbon that I thought would make nice "leaves" for my apples so I just tied that around the stem and cut each end on an angle to resemble stylized leaves (without trying to make them really look like leaves). For my pears, I tied bows with cute green and brown pear ribbon that I happened to have. I thought they turned out cute. For one pumpkin, I used twine instead of curling ribbon to give it a more authentic look. I am not sure if I love it, but it is one option and something different. (Note: My first pumpkin would not stand up straight so I tried trimming the bottom of the pages to make them flatter. When that did not do the trick, I added some cardboard to the bottom, which stabilized it.)

{My First Finished Apple}

{Finished Pumpkin with Wider Curling Ribbon}

{Finished Pumpkin with Twine}

{My Finished Fall Display!}

A Super Simple Pumpkin Craft!

{The "Finished" Results}

 One thing I love about my new MOPS group is that I always get to do a craft project at the end. (Bonus: I don't even have to come up with it or find the materials to create.) At the last meeting we made this really, really easy pumpkin out of a roll of toilet paper and a piece of fabric. (Yes, you read that correctly. It's a roll of actual toilet paper, not just the cardboard tube. That's a new one, right?) There was batting available for making a fuller pumpkin, but I decided to go with the basic pumpkin. This is so simple even a crafting novice can do it. Put your roll of TP down on your fabric and then bring up all the edges and stuff them into the center of the tube at the top. There were paper leaf shapes available, and we stuck them into the top and called it done. (See photo below.) After a few days of looking at this and thinking it didn't look quite "finished," I decided to add a stick from the yard to make a stem for my pumpkin. I hot glued the paper leaf to it because it kept falling out of my pumpkin. Lastly, I tied a bow with some twine. Raffia would have worked for the country cute look, too, but I had twine so that is what I used. I am happy with how it turned out. This is sitting up high on top of a green glass candle holder atop my kitchen cabinets with my other fall display items (cornucopia, pumpkins, apples, gourds, leaves) and looking just right for fall, however, I know where to look if we are ever running low on toilet paper...

{Before adding the stick and twine... It's just missing a little "something."}

Winter Tree Project

{Winter Trees by Mia, Age 4}

Currently, there is no snow to speak of, which aside from making us Michiganders feel that global warming is of real concern, means that there is little craft inspiration lately. However, there have been some brilliant sunrises and sunsets in recent days, and this reminds me of an art project I did in elementary school. It's a simple idea, and the end result is very striking. (Unfortunately, the photo doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea.)

Materials:

• white paper
• watercolor paints
• paintbrushes
• black marker
• newspaper (optional)

Directions:
1) Protect work surface with newspaper if desired. Then fill your paper with watercolor paints. 
2) Using a black marker, draw a winter (deciduous) tree or trees.
3) Display your winter tree project for some extra beauty on these dreary winter days.

Tips:

• For paint colors, I would suggest pinks, reds, oranges, yellows, purples, and blues since these are colors you often see in the sky at sunrise or sunset. Set aside and allow paint to dry completely.  

• While watercolor paper is of course the preferred paper to use with watercolor paints, any paper will work, although thicker papers stand up better. 

• We used an 8" x 8" scrapbook page. They came with a scrapbook and since I use decorative papers for my scrapbook pages, I save the plain white ones for kids' art projects. (The 12" x 12" size scrapbook paper fits nicely into the photo frames made for records, by the way.) 

• You could also use markers with different widths of tips to get various sized branches. 
• Before doing this project, I had Mia look out the window at our trees and pointed out how the trunk is widest at the base and then the branches get narrower as they get higher and higher up the tree. I think she understood, but she ended up frustrated because she couldn't draw them as well as she would have liked. Which is probably why this project was originally done when I was about 10, not 4.

Turkey Collage with Dried Beans

While searching for Thanksgiving crafts that we hadn't done yet, I came across this cute variation on a hand print turkey and decided it was perfect entertainment for my little turkeys.

Materials:

• paper plate
• marker
• dried beans or pasta
• white glue (optional)

Directions:

1. Trace your child's hand onto a paper plate. If desired, add a beak, wattle, and legs to the turkey. Older kids can do this step themselves.
2. Give your child some dried beans or pasta. We used kidney beans, navy beans, black beans, pinto beans, split peas, and spiral pasta. Popcorn kernels are another option. I put each kind of bean into its own bowl, but you could mix them all together if you prefer. 
3. Kids can either decorate their turkey and glue down their design to make it permanent, or they can arrange and re-arrange the turkey as many times as they want, skipping the glue.

Turkey Snack Plate

{Mia, age 4, was in a bit of a hurry when she made this.}

Here is a quick, simple idea for keeping the kids occupied while making your Thanksgiving meal. Trace your child's hand onto a paper plate, and add a beak, wattle, and legs if desired. Then give him or her some snacks to arrange into a turkey shape before "gobbling" them up. We used Rice Chex, Honey Nut Cheerios, peanuts, and pretzels, and candy corn, but you could also try dried fruit (raisins, Craisins, etc.), other nuts, seeds, chocolate chips, M & M's, popcorn, or whatever else you have in your pantry. Happy Turkey Day!

Fall "Stained Glass" Crafts with Melted Crayons

{Acorn by Mia, Age 4}

Once again I was looking for a way to use up our collection of broken crayon bits, which I have been saving for a few months since we made scribble cookies. After seeing this acorn craft, I decided we would melt them and make some stained glass-like crafts. That said, I encountered a number of problems while doing this, so I have lots of advice to offer if you want to make crafts by melting crayons (and not have it be a complete catastrophe).

• First, you may want to peel the wrappers off of your crayon bits as you collect them in your container. (I have been using a plastic bowl, but a jug or jar would work well.) The reason I say this is that I spent a long time doing this all at once and I ended up with wax shoved underneath three of my fingernails, which is pretty painful.
• After that, I spent another long while making wax shavings with a pencil sharpener, since Mia got frustrated quickly while trying to help. While this was necessary for making the craft, I ended up with blisters, which I wasn't thrilled about. If you do this, I would plan in advance and make some shavings each day for a week so that you don't have the issue with blistering. 
• I sorted all of our shavings by color families (blues, reds, greens, etc.) into individual bowls. This was probably too perfectionistic since the kids mixed the colors all together in their projects, anyway. Don't be too concerned about being perfectly organized, unless, of course, you are so compelled.
• I am pretty sure I ruined our ironing board and possibly, the iron. (Oh darn, how will I iron now? I obviously use it so frequently, right?) I thought I had taken proper precautions to protect them, however, it wasn't enough. I still ended up with melted crayon everywhere! If you are still reading and you are feeling brave enough to try this project, make sure you don't care about your iron or ironing board. If, however, you would like to save your iron and ironing board, note that one sheet of construction paper and one dish towel aren't going to cut it. Cover your board with plenty of paper or maybe old tee-shirts or towels that you don't care about ruining. Or buy yourself a used iron/ironing board at a garage sale, and keep it on hand for craft projects.

Materials:

{Turkey Eating Acorn by Mia, Age 4}

• wax paper
• old, broken crayons
• pencil sharpener
• container to hold wax shavings
• pencil
• scissors
• warm iron
• black construction paper (optional for making "windows")
• tape 
• clear contact paper  
• paper trimmer (optional)
• templates (optional)
  Large Acorn
  Small Acorn
  Turkey
  Large Maple Leaf
  

  

  {Acorn by Logan, Age 2}

  Small Leaves

Directions:

1. Use a pencil sharpener to make crayon shavings.
2. Tear off two sheets of wax paper, approximately the same size, making sure they are large enough for your design.
3. Use a pencil to draw or trace your design on the non-waxy side of one piece of wax paper. When using a template, you will lay your wax paper over top and outline the shape onto your wax paper. 
4. Have your child sprinkle crayon shavings inside the design area. Don't worry about being perfect; it will change as the wax melts, anyway. Remind them to use a small amount. Big clumps of wax don't work as well as a thin layer.
5. Lay the second sheet of wax paper on top and carefully transfer both sheets to your ironing board. (Make sure you have protected the surface before doing this.)
6. Cover the wax paper with a large, old towel. Then, gently press down the iron. I checked on the progress about every 10 seconds until I thought they were melted enough. (There is no exact science to this, though, so watch closely. The wax will melt quickly. Only adults should use the iron.)
7. Set the wax paper/crayon "sandwich" aside to cool.
8. If you want your project to look like a stained glass window, draw/trace your design onto a piece of black construction paper and cut out the shape. Tape your now cool melted wax creation to the back side, trimming as needed.
9. Using scissors or a paper trimmer (my preferred method), cut two pieces of clear contact paper slightly larger than your wax paper shape or black paper (if making a stained glass "window").
10. Slowly peel the backing off of one piece of contact paper. Place the wax paper shape or black paper onto it. Peel the backing off of the second piece of contact paper and place it over top so the sticky sides meet. Trim away excess as needed, leaving 1/4" all the way around.
11. Use tape to display the stained glass craft in a window.



{Maple Leaf by Mia, Age 4}

 

{Oak Leaf by Logan, Age 2}

"Season's Eatings!" Turkey Card

Here is something you can do with all those outdated spices in your pantry. I found this idea for a spice-covered hand print turkey, and decided to expand it into a Thanksgiving greeting card. Please note that this is not an edible craft, although your kitchen will smell quite lovely when you are done.

{Spice Hand Print Turkey by Mia, Age 4}

{Another Spice Turkey by Mia, Age 4}

Materials:

• white construction paper
• pencil
• newspaper (optional)
• white glue
• paint brush
• tray/plate to hold glue
• spices
• orange or yellow crayon
• black marker
• egg carton* (optional)

Directions:

1. Fold a piece of paper in half.
2. Trace your child's hand onto one side of the paper.
3. Draw a beak and wattle onto the thumb for the turkey's head.
4. If desired, cover work surface with newspaper to make clean-up easier. Pour a small amount of white glue onto a tray or plate and have your child "paint" it onto the entire turkey using a small paintbrush.
5. Let your child decorate the turkey with various spices. We used black peppercorns for eyes. Other spices included cinnamon, cloves, allspice, ginger, apple pie spice, parsley, oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary, and mustard. (I know that last one isn't really related to Thanksgiving, but I thought it would provide another color.) *Tip: I found that putting small amounts of each spice into a different section of an egg carton minimized the mess.
6. Gently shake off excess spices, and allow glue to dry.
7. Have your child add legs and feet to the turkey using an orange or yellow crayon. (Colored pencil or marker would work as well.)
8. Personalize your card and send "Season's Eatings!" to a loved one.

A-Corny Print Making Project

{Bubble Wrap Print Acorn by Mia, Age 4}

This week at preschool, Mia's class is studying squirrels and nuts, which inspired me to come up with this acorn print making craft using some leftover bubble wrap.

{Work in Progress}

Materials:

• brown construction paper
• tan construction paper
• scissors
• bubble wrap
• brown paint*
• paintbrush (we love the foam kind)
• newspaper (to protect work surface)
• tray/plate (to hold paint)
• glue stick

Directions:

1. Fold a piece of brown construction paper in half and cut an acorn shape. (This is a bit like cutting a heart except that you don't bring your scissors to the center of the paper at the top.) Cut out acorn shape.
2. Cut an acorn cap shape from bubble wrap. (This is like a half circle with a stem on top.)
3. Protect work surface with newspaper. Have your child paint the textured side of the bubble wrap with brown paint. Press the painted side down onto a piece of tan construction paper and allow the paint to dry.
4. Once paint is dry, cut out the print. (Older kids can do this themselves.) Have your child glue the printed acorn cap onto the nut shape. After glue is dry, display your acorn printmaking craft project.

Tip*: We actually ran out of brown paint, so we made our own. You do this by mixing together orange and blue paints.

TP Tube Indian Corn Craft

Once again, we have a supply of toilet paper tubes and I thought that they could be made into an Indian corn craft. I was thinking that these would look nice as either napkin holders or as place cards for a fall table setting. This craft is quick, easy, and only requires a few materials. You could substitute paint for the Bingo markers and paper bag for the raffia if you don't have those items on hand.

{By Mia, Age 4}

Materials:

• toilet paper tube
• Bingo markers
• raffia
• glue

Directions:

1. Use Bingo markers to dot color onto an empty toilet paper tube to look like Indian corn kernels. We used red, orange, and purple Bingo markers from Dollar Tree. Allow ink to dry.
2. Unroll a piece of raffia (ours was the handle from a paper shopping bag) and tear it into strips.
3. Glue the strips of raffia to the inside of the toilet paper tube to make the corn husks.
4. Once glue is dry you can place a napkin inside the tube or take a marker and add a name to the outside to make a place card holder for your fall table.

Bubble Wrap Indian Corn Print Making

I am not sure where I came up with this idea originally. In looking for pictures, I discovered that there are several versions posted online already. I will share how we did this project. This was fun, but kind of messy.

{Indian Corn Craft by Mia, Age 4}

Materials:

{By Logan, Age 2}

• yellow construction paper
• paint (we used orange, yellow-orange, brown, white, and blue)
• paint brush
• tray/plate for paint
• newspaper
• bubble wrap
• scissors
• paper bag
• glue

Directions:

1. Cut bubble wrap into the shape of an ear of corn.
2. Protect work surface with newspaper. Pour some paint onto a Styrofoam tray (leftover from meat packaging) or a plate. Paint the bubble wrap in various colors of Indian corn. My kids used big foam paintbrushes, but if you have older kids, they could paint each individual bubble a different color with a smaller paintbrush.
3. Press bubble wrap paint-side down onto a piece of yellow construction paper. Allow paint to dry.
4. Once paint is dried, cut out your ear of corn.
5. Crumple up a paper bag. We used a grocery bag, but a paper lunch sack would also work. Tear the bag into strips and glue the strips to the backside of your paper to make the corn husks.
6. After glue is dried you can display your bubble wrap printed Indian corn craft.

Beaded Indian Corn Mosaic Craft

Here is another variation of an Indian corn craft that we made using leftover dyed pasta beads and some cardboard from the recycling bin.

{Indian Corn Mosaic By Mia, Age 4}

{Mia's Work in Progress}

Materials:

• cardboard
• pencil
• scissors
• dyed pasta beads (or plastic beads)
• tacky glue
• green crepe paper (optional)
• hole punch (optional)
• yarn, ribbon, or string for hanging (optional)

Directions:

{Indian Corn Mosaic By Logan, Age 2}

1. Draw an ear of corn (long narrow oval) with husks onto a piece of cardboard and cut it out. If you don't want to draw it freehand, try printing off a template.
2. Help your child apply dots of tacky glue all over the cardboard.
3. Have your child adhere pasta (or plastic) beads to the dots of glue.
4. If desired, cut two strips of green crepe paper, glue to the cardboard, and trim the ends to look like husks as I did for Logan's project.
5. Allow all glue to dry before displaying your project. The beaded cardboard ends up being fairly heavy so it may not stick to your refrigerator. One option is to punch two holes and thread yarn, ribbon, or string through for hanging.

Indian Corn Scissor Skills Project

We are loving this fantastic week's worth of Indian summer! Here is another Indian corn craft project that I came up with so Mia could practice her scissor skills.

{By Mia, Age 4}

{By Logan, Age 2}

Materials:

• construction paper in fall colors (yellow, green, orange, brown, red, purple, tan)
• pencil (optional)
• safety scissors
• glue

Directions: 

1. Take a piece of yellow or tan construction paper and fold it like a hot dog. Cut out a skinny football or long oval shape to make the ear of corn. Open the folded paper.
2. Cut several long strips of various colored paper about 3/4" - 1 1/4" wide.
3. Have your preschool age child cut the strips into smaller squares. While s/he is cutting squares, you can cut out two green (or brown) leaf shapes for the corn husks. If you wish, you can fold your paper in half, draw the shape with a pencil, and then cut out two identical shapes (either connected like Logan's or separated like Mia's).
4. Have your child glue the colored squares onto the corn to make the kernels. (Younger children can also do this even if they are not able to use scissors. Logan made his own project.)
5. Glue down the corn husks and allow all glue to dry. Now your project is ready to display.

Paper Bag Indian Corn Craft

I was trying to come up with some fall craft ideas that we hadn't already done to death, and I realized Indian corn was perfect. We have made several variations of Indian corn lately, (and I have a few more ideas to try) so I will get them posted soon. For now, here is the first version, which we made with a re-purposed brown paper shopping bag.

{By Mia, Age 4}

Materials:

• paper bag (raffia type handle optional)
• scissors
• pencil
• Bingo markers
• glue (optional)
• newspaper (to protect work surface)

Directions:

1. Draw a corn cob on a paper bag. Ours was a shopping bag that got torn and couldn't be used again. (The basic shape for the ear of corn is a long thin oval.) Add corn husks to the sides.
2. Cut our your corn cob and husks.
3. Cover your work surface with newspaper and use Bingo markers to dot on color for the Indian corn kernels. We used orange, red, and purple Bingo markers from Dollar Tree. (If you have yellow or white, those would work nicely, too.) Leave some of the background paper brown to give some extra contrast.
4. If you like, you can use a green Bingo marker to color in your corn husks, which is what Mia chose to do. You could also leave them plain brown, which would look dried out like actual Indian corn husks. Or, if your paper bag has raffia type handles, cut them off and unroll them. Arrange as desired, glue to the paper bag, and trim off the excess so that it looks like corn husks. This is what I did for Logan's.

   

   {By Logan, Age 2}

Toilet Paper Tube Turkey

Since Mia's friend, Emily, was coming for a play date, I decided to come up with another turkey project for the girls to do. I think they turned out pretty cute.

Materials Needed:

• toilet paper tube
• 2 googly eyes
• coffee filter
• markers
• spray bottle filled with water
• scissors
• glue
• orange pipe cleaner
• red pipe cleaner
• masking tape

Directions:

Toilet Paper Tube Turkey by Mia, Age 3 1/2

1. Using markers, color a coffee filter. You don't have to color perfectly or cover all of the white space. I used red, orange, and yellow markers to color my coffee filter in "pie piece" sections to look like tail feathers. Mia and Emily used various colors.
2. Spray the colored coffee filter with water so that the marker blends like water colors. Set aside to dry.
3. Using the tip of your scissors, poke a small hole in the toilet paper tube, approximately in the middle.
4. Cut a length of orange pipe cleaner, approximately 2 inches, bend in half and insert the bent end into the hole to make the turkey's beak.
5. Glue two googly eyes above the beak.
6. Cut a length of red pipe cleaner, approximately 2 inches, bend into a kidney bean shape for the wattle. Glue onto the toilet paper tube, or twist it so that it is attached to the orange pipe cleaner beak.
7. Once the coffee filter is dry, use one hand to pinch it together, and use the other hand to tape the gathered section to the back of the toilet paper tube. Allow glue to dry completely. 
8. You can now display your turkey on a table or shelf or use your turkey as a finger puppet. You might also use it as a napkin ring or add a name and use it as a Thanksgiving place card.

   

   Toilet Paper Tube Turkey by Emily, Age 3 1/2

Build-a-Turkey Snack

Here is a snack that kids of all ages will "gobble" up. I know mine did! You can use just about any combination of fruits, veggies, crackers, cheese, pretzels, or nuts. Here is how I made this version:

1. Slice a ripe pear down the center lengthwise and use one thin section for the turkey's body.
2. Slice fresh apples into wedges and use for tail feathers. I also used sliced canned peaches. (I was planning to use cheese, and then realized we didn't have any.)
3. Cut a grape into 2 small pieces for eyes. (I would have used raisins or Craisins, but again, we were all out.)
4. A pineapple tidbit made a perfect beak.
5. I used a small bit of maraschino cherry for the wattle, although a Craisin would be good for this, too.
6. Enjoy your turkey snack creation!

Turkey Leg Maraca

My husband just looked at me like I was nuts, but this time my craft inspiration came from rinsing out an empty bottle for recycling. I think this is the quickest and simplest project I have ever come up with and Mia thought it was fun! What could be better?

Materials:

• plastic milk bottle with cap 
• brown paint
• paint brush
• dried beans (or rice, coins, etc.)

Directions:

1. Coat the inside of a clean, dry plastic milk bottle (ours was from McDonald's) with brown paint.  Allow the paint to dry. The way we did this was to pour paint into the bottle, put the lid on, and tip it upside down. We let gravity do most of the work and then used a paint brush to touch up any areas as needed.
2. Fill the bottle with dried beans. Replace the lid and have fun making some music!

Paper Bag Turkey Puppet

Just when I thought I was getting tired of turkey crafts, I came up with this idea for a quick and simple way to make a turkey hand puppet. Obviously, we had to try it out, and I was pleased with the final results.

Paper Bag Turkey Puppet by Mia, age 3 1/2

Materials:

• paper plate
• brown paper lunch bag
• scissors
• glue
• crayons (colored pencils, markers, or paint) in fall colors
• yellow or orange construction paper
• red construction paper
• 2 googly eyes

Directions:

1. Starting toward the center of a paper plate, use crayons to color different sections so that it looks a bit like the spokes of a wheel. You don't have to color the portion of the plate that will be covered by the paper bag.
2. Make sure that the creased part of the bottom of the paper bag is facing you. (It will be the turkey's head and you will want to be able to put your hand inside.) Glue the paper plate to the paper bag so that the colored side is toward you.
3. Glue two googly eyes onto the bottom part of the paper bag. We placed ours near the center.
4. Cut a rectangle out of yellow or orange construction paper, fold it in half, and then cut a triangle shape with the creased side as a base. Make sure not to cut on the fold. You will have a 3-D beak to glue onto the bottom section of the paper bag.
5. Cut a wattle from red construction paper and glue it onto the paper bag.
6. Allow the glue to dry completely before playing with your puppet.