Pine Cone Turkey Craft

This craft is one we put together last year using a kit assembled by another family from our library's story time. Mia was 2 1/2 at the time, and she was able to glue on the eyes, beak, and wattle. Everything else was my responsibility, so I would not recommend this craft for children younger than preschool age unless you are prepared to help quite a bit.

This turkey is so cute! I will save it and display it every year.

Materials:

• medium pine cone
• yellow or orange felt 
• red felt 
• 1 orange pipe cleaner 
• 1 red, 1 yellow, and 1 brown pipe cleaner 
• 2 googly eyes
• scissors
• glue

Directions:

1. Glue two googly eyes onto the narrow end of the pine cone. Tacky glue works well for this.
2. Cut a small triangle from orange or yellow felt to make the beak. Glue below the eyes.
3. Cute a kidney bean shape out of red felt and glue onto the beak to make the wattle.
4. Cut the red, yellow, and brown pipe cleaners in half, form a loop with each section and adhere to the back of the large end of the pine cone to form the tail. You may use glue, but I found this didn't stick well, so I twisted the ends around the little segments on the pine cone.
5. Cut the orange pipe cleaner in half. Bend each half so that it has two or three curved toes and glue to the bottom of the pine cone to make the turkey's feet.

Other Options:

• You could use craft foam or construction paper in place of felt for the beak and wattle.
• Try actual feathers in place of pipe cleaners for the tail.
• Another option for the tail would be to make feathers out of felt, craft foam, or construction paper.
• Use construction paper, craft foam, or felt to make the feet.
• If you don't have googly eyes, you could make your own eyes from paper, felt, foam, buttons, beads, etc. 
• Substitute any color pipe cleaners for the fall colors and make a funky turkey!
• Make one for each family member with various sized pine cones and display them together.
• Or tuck a slip of colored paper onto the back of each one and label it with a Thanksgiving dinner guest's name. Voila! You have a place card and a cute souvenir all in one. 
• Glue a pom pom on the small end of the pine cone to make a head. Then decorate with eyes, beak, and wattle.
• I am sure you can think of even more ideas for personalizing this project!