Thanksgiving 3-D Turkey Craft for Kids

I couldn't resist making this turkey craft. I'll make it again with my kids over Thanksgiving, but I want to share it with you now.

I also found another Thanksgiving book to share with you, also because I couldn't resist. 
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I discovered this adorable new storybook, The Very Stuffed Turkey by Katharine Kenah (affiliate). It's about a little turkey who goes visits five homes on Thanksgiving. Along the way, he encounters various traditions, and of course eats too much.

My turkey doesn't look anything like illustrator Binny Talb's lovable bird. Still, I think doing a turkey craft after reading the story is a fair pairing.

While you craft, you can talk about your own family's traditions and holiday plans.

Turkey Craft

There are a lot of different coffee filter turkeys on Pinterest, so I don't know for sure if that's what inspired me to make this one.  More likely, I saw these watercolor turkey crafts on Playdough & Popsicles. They're quite different than what I ended up with, but would be great for toddlers or younger preschoolers.

I wanted to make a 3-D turkey. When I started out making it, though, the filter went flat when I painted it.  I had to experiment to figure out how to get it to hold its shape. Read on for the trick...

Materials

Coffee filter
Construction paper
Scissors
Googly eyes
Tape
Glue
Liquid food color or liquid watercolor
Paper towels

Instructions

The trick to getting the filter to hold its shape is painting it while it's folded. You fold it into itself and tape it, like shown below. It's kind of fiddly to do, but not hard. Try not to worry about making it perfect. 

Set the folded filter on a paper towel or two. Next, drop the liquid watercolor or food coloring onto the filter. Then let it dry undisturbed. 

Meanwhile, cut out all the turkey body pieces. To attach the head to the body, accordion-fold a strip of paper. Then tape it to both sides. Here's a side-view closeup.

When your filter is totally dry, open it up and cut off the bottom so that the turkey body nestles in as shown.

Glue it in. You're ready to gobble gobble!

This post is part of the Kids Are Thankful blog hop. Several other bloggers and I have teamed up to share Thanksgiving-themed storybooks with related crafts and activities.  Go see which one is your favorite!