Category

Thanksgiving

Pine Cone & Play-Doh Turkey Crafts

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One of my favorite parts of my daughter’s days at daycare are receiving her daily reports & seeing all of the craft projects that she brings home. I love seeing her beautiful crafts, even the ones that she does with someone else.

This week she brought home a lovely fall one.  It was branches bound together & decorated with Play-Doh. Miss Laura said that Mai worked on it for 2 hours.

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This weekend there was a sale on Play-Doh at the supermarket, so I stocked up. Mai was so excited when I came home with a box filled with 24 different shades of it. She dove right in & started creating.

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She is becoming quite the little artist. Her imagination is developing so quickly. I watched her as she kneaded & forms different shapes & put them together. She explained to me as she molded her creation what she was making.  “Look mama, a frog! He has a blue fly on his tongue.” I have to admit, I was very proud.

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She did not stop there. “Look Mama, I made Dukey’s poop.” Oh dear! It does look like Dukey’s poop.

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Since we already were in such a crafty mood & had a table full of Play-Doh, I thought we could make something together.

Thanksgiving Turkey Craft

This just require pine cones & Play-doh. I used craft pine cones only because they were handy. You can use ones from your yard as well.

Form & mold the turkey’s head to the fat part of the pine cone. Show your child how to do it & let them do it to their own.
(If your pine cone is wobbly, place a chunk of Play-doh underneath to keep sturdy.)

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Form long oval shaped pieces to use as the turkey feathers.

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Insert towards the back between the pine cone scales.

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Again, show your little one how to do it.

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Add the beak. Older children may be able to do this step, but the smaller hands might need the help. Mai asked mama to make her turkey face.

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Add the eyes next.

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Add the turkey’s waddle & you are done.

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Mommy & Me Thanksgiving Crafts

hand & foot print turkey craft for kids - Thankgiving

I think every parent wants & hopes that their children will show interest in things that they are passionate about. Of course they will discover their own talents and passions, but to be able to have something to share and to connect to them with would be amazing. For my husband, who is a marathon runner, he has aspirations of Mai running races with him someday. He also loves to golf. He bought Mai her first toy golf set when she was just starting to walk.

Excuse me, playing through.
Excuse me, playing through.

Since the day my daughter was born, I have been excited for the day that we would be able to do arts & craft projects together. I think I bought her, her first box of crayons before she could even hold one. I started her on finger paints before she turned one. I have been so hopeful that she would love art as much as I do. She likes to color and use her finger paints and she loves it when mommy draws pictures for her. She will often give me special requests by handing me her crayon and shouting “horse” or making an elephant sound. God, is she cute.

With the holidays coming, I have been daydreaming of decorating sugar cookies and making gingerbread houses but since Thanksgiving is only a couple of weeks away, I thought we could do a Thanksgiving Day craft favorite. Who hasn’t made the classic hand turkey as a child? I think most of us, probably have. I wanted to make a special turkey that joined our two hands together. Unfortunately, it is hard to explain to a nearly 2 year old toddler, that she can’t wiggle her hand around in the paint to make a mommy/daughter hand turkey.

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 Instead, Mai finger painted with her Cool Whip paints and had fun on her own, but did let mommy take a footprint.

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I took her foot print and added it to my hand. The foot would be the wing to my  hand’s turkey’s body.056

I added the feet & wattle using paint & here is mommy & Mai’s hand & foot turkey.

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Here is another cute and easy idea.

What you will need…

Styrofoam flower cone

Pipe cleaners in assorted colors

Googly eyes

Glue

Take the styrofoam cone and  cut it to your desired height.  I carved around the top also to give the appearance of a head.

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Bend the pipe cleaners in half to use as the feathers.

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Poke & insert folded pipe cleaners into the back of the styrofoam to form feathers.

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Use an orange or yellow pipe cleaner & cut  into small pieces to use for the feet & beak. Knot a red pipe cleaner to use as the turkey wattle. Glue on the googly eyes and done.

Kids love pipe cleaners.
Kids love pipe cleaners.

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This is an easy project for kids of all ages.

Up next…Things That Make My Daughter Laugh