Turkey of Thanks

This is a great way to teach your children all of the different things there are to be thankful for and a wonderful yearly tradition to start.  I found this idea on Parent's Magazine website last year.  It was too cute to resist!  Wrapping the dark brown yarn around the larger styrofoam ball for the body was tricky, but after a while I figured it out.  The key is to wrap in circles and keep the yarn as close together as possible.

 

Materials:
Dark Brown Yarn             9 inch styrofoam ball
Light Brown Yarn             4 inch styrofoam ball
Orange Felt                    Red Felt
Google Eyes                   Toothpicks
Construction Paper          Small piece of Cardboard
Scissors                        Hot Glue Gun

How to make it: Cut a 1-inch sliver off the bottom of a 9-inch styrofoam ball. Wrap it neatly in thick dark-brown yarn, covering surface completely; knot on bottom. Make a 4-inch ball from light-brown yarn and attach to body with a toothpick. Create the turkey's features using felt: orange triangles for the beak, and long red felt teardrops as the wattle. I also cut little legs out of the orange felt. Use hot glue to attach the beak, wattle, and eyes.  Glue the legs to toothpicks and insert into bottom of turkey to help it stand up. Make a template feather shape from the cardboard. Trace however many feathers you need onto different colored construction paper. 


If your family is far spread and you won't see everyone at Thanksgiving you can mail them all a feather, have them write what they are thankful for and their name and mail it back to you.  Once you receive the feathers back, use the hot glue gun to glue toothpicks to the bottom of each feather and insert them into your turkey.


If you will see your family on Thanksgiving, just have the feathers ready to be filled out and insert into your turkey!