Thanksgiving is just two weeks away and soon tables all over the country will be filled with family, food, and memorable moments. Make the kid’s table extra special with these adorable little turkey centerpieces. They are simple to make and offer the kids a great activity while they visit with their cousins at dinner. Cover the table in plain wrapping paper, set these turkey marker holders in the center and see what the kid’s in your family are thankful for this year.
I am so super excited to be sharing this little Thanksgiving craft with you today. I am especially excited about this one because, not only is it a great craft to make, but it promises to be a hit at the kid’s table at this year’s Thanksgiving dinner. My kids flipped their lids for these turkey marker holders, and they worked their magic on a card table covered in plain paper!
Hundreds of thousands of people will be sitting around the table to enjoy dinner with their family and friends in the next couple of weeks and I know that often times the “kid’s table” ends up being a card table set up to accommodate more guests than the dining room table can handle. It makes for extra seating and to houses the route children during dinner time for a kid friendly dining experience. Why not make it extra fun for them this year, and create a way to get them talking about what they are thankful for in their own little hearts. By covering that old card table with plain wrapping paper and placing these cute little turkeys in the center filled with markers as makeshift “tail feathers” the kids won’t be able to resist the kids table, and neither will some of the adults. I found this idea in the November 2007 issue if Family Fun Magazine and could not wait to create my own version. Our local library is a great resource for old unwanted magazines – I pick up interesting issues for a quarter each, and that’s were this idea came from.
This set up at the kids table is a great way to prompt a conversation about being thankful, grateful and kind. We decided that we would write what we were thankful for on the table and draw pictures of it too. My son is learning to read and write so he was really excited to write new words and sentences on the table. My little girl was much more apt to scribble and draw pictures of things the best way she knows how. It certainly was a fun project for them ,and a project that made my heart sing with delight. I am always most proud of projects that are meaningful and help our kids communicate the more important things in life.
This craft is simple, fun and inexpensive and will transform your card table into a masterpiece filled with the kid’s drawings, writing, and notes. The turkeys make the perfect little holsters for a package of markers and are a great way to keep track and share all of the colors at the table. The kids can easily slip markers in and out of the holes, and the felt bottom allows the turkeys to easily be slid around the table.
To make these little turkeys you will need:
1 large (8 inch) Styrofoam ball cut in half with a bread knife
Brown Tempera or Acrylic Craft Paint and a brush
Cereal Box cardboard or card stock paper
2 pieces of felt
black, white, red and orange construction paper
2 packages of markers (thin or thick – which ever you prefer – I did one of each)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
1 roll of neutral paper gift wrap (from the dollar store)
Here is the low down on how to make these. I decided to make two turkey’s simply because I had to cut the foam ball in half, and figured I shouldn’t waste half of it. I also have two kiddos who love doing projects, so they each got to make one. To make them each a bit different I had the kids each paint theirs a different shade of brown. The “boy” turkey was painted with brown tempera paint and the “girl turkey” was painted in a metallic light brown acrylic craft apaint that I had on hand. I had 2 new packages of markers hiding in the craft box (purchased for less than a buck during the back to school sales) that were perfect for this project. I figured I would let my son use the thicker markers for the boy turkey and my daughter use the longer thinner markers for a more feminine looking turkey.
How to:
Cut foam ball in half
Paint the two sections of the foam ball in the brown color of your choice
Cut 2 peanut shaped turkey heads from an old cereal and paint them to coordinate with the foam balls
Let all paint dry completely
Place ball halves on a sheet of felt and trace around
Cut felt to fit under the turkey body and glue into place (this will keep foam from breaking off and causing a mess and help the turkey slide across the table easier for sharing)
Cut eyes and beaks out of construction paper and glue onto peanut shaped turkey heads
Now glue the bottom half of the decorated turkey head onto the Styrofoam body
Gently push the markers into the foam to create tail feathers in whatever pattern you like
These have been a hit with my kids, and I am sure they will be with yours too. We will be taking these to both sets of Grandparent’s houses along with a roll of paper to share with all of the other kid’s in the family. I am certain that your entire family will get a kick out of these turkeys and want their own spot at the kids table this Thanksgiving. We have added these to our dining room table for the entire month of November along with a table runner made of paper so we can each add something that we are thankful for each night at dinner.
