Kids Turkey Craft Using a Can or Bottle

I ran across this idea in a local paper and I thought it was pretty cute. My little guy had lots of fun making his turkey. We were joking that his is the turkey you want for thanksgiving dinner, and mine is the decorative turkey :)

This is a wonderful way for your kids to practice their cutting skills.

All you need to make these cute little turkeys are:

• construction paper
• toilet paper roll or paper towel roll cut into about 1-2 inch sections
• glue ( I like a hot glue gun)
• recycled tin can or water bottle
• cereal box to make the bird more sturdy (optional)

To make your turkey, first cut out all the shapes for eyes, beak, waddle (or is that wattle? You know, the little red thing), legs and feathers. Next cut a big circle for the body and a little circle for the head.  We just traced a plate for the body and a cup for the head.

Wrap your can or water bottle in in paper, and glue in place.

Glue all the facial pieces to your turkeys face and glue feathers and legs to the body.

Then put glue on the top  edge of one of your toilet paper rolls and glue it to the back of the head. Now put glue on the bottom of the roll and glue that to the body.

At this point you may want to glue a piece of cereal box to the back of your turkey before attaching it to the can so that it is a little more sturdy.

And if you used a can you can think of something to be thankful for each day leading up to thanksgiving and fold it up and put it in your can.

Turkey Craft

This little turkey craft is so easy and so cute. Its a great kids thanksgiving craft for killing some time waiting for dinner. We made it last year at our family get together and there were kids from age 1 up to about 12 and they all had fun making these.

What you need:

feathers

googley eyes

pipe cleaners for the feet

red felt for the waddle

yellow felt for the beak

pom pom for the head

3 wine corks for the body

hot glue gun works best for gluing

First glue the 3 corks together vertically. Then, cut out the beak and waddle from the felt, shape the feet from pipe cleaners and then glue it all together using a hot glue gun. You could even put a little card on the front to use it as a name card for your place setting.

These are so easy to make and the kids love picking out all the parts to make the turkey craft- and, the kids at heart love it too :)

Bean Bag Tutorial

This year I'm homeroom mom for my son's kindergarten class. We are always looking for cheap party games, and we decided to do a bean bag toss as one of the halloween party games.  The bean bags are so simple to make. I wanted to share it, because my little boy is having lots of fun playing with the bean bags just around the house. And even if you just use them for a party it only cost 75 cents for the fabric and just a little while to make the bags.

What you need to make them:
1/4 yard of fabric
a bag of beans or rice (for filling the bean bags)
thread

First, cut your fabric. I cut mine across horizontally and then cut each of those strips into rectangles. Mine turned out to be 10 rectangles- each 4.5x5.5 inches.

Put 2 rectangles right sides facing each other and sew along 2 long sides and an end, leaving one end open so that you can put in the beans.

After you have the 3 sides sewn, turn the bag inside out (or should that be right sides out?) so you can see the right side of the fabric.

Next, fill the bag with 3 tablespoons of beans. This is great part to involve a little helper.

Time to clean up the beans you spilled all over the sewing machine trying to take a picture and fill the bag at the same time.

Once the bag is filled, tuck in the raw edges on top, folding them in towards the wrong side of the fabric.

Hold or pin the edges shut and sew along all 4 sides of the bag.

All done!

We're using buckets decorated with  jack-o-lantern faces to toss the bean bags into, but  you could use boxes or anything you can think of.

Q-tip Skeleton Craft for Kids

My five year old likes to do crafts, and for some reason, he is really fascinated with skeletons. So, when I ran across the creative q-tip skeletons at Stuff by Ash I knew that he would be excited to make one. And he was. He was so happy with how it turned out that he couldn't wait for it to dry so he could chase me around the house with it. The joys of having  kids :)

Here's his version of the q-tip skeleton. Head on over to check out the tutorial on Stuff by Ash.

A Childs Gift from the Heart

I know we all have that person that has everything and its so hard to find something that won't just be more clutter around the house. I always like to give gifts from the heart.  This idea is a super simple idea to say I love you to that special someone. All you need is are fabric markers and a canvas tote bag and a cute kid :)  Let your little artist have carte blanche and your gift recipient is sure to treasure it.