Coffee Filter Turkey Craft: a DIY Thanksgiving Craft for Kids
Inside: Coffee Filter Turkey Craft with printable turkey body template included!
Get your kids in the Thanksgiving spirit this year with this fun coffee filter turkey craft! It's a great project for preschoolers and kindergartners, since it is easy to do. All you need is a coffee filter, some markers, and a printable turkey body that you can download in this post.
Included in this post is that cute little goofy printable turkey body.
A little warning:
Unless you love marker all over everything in your house, I highly recommend spending this time WITH your preschooler while they color these little coffee filter turkey crafts. They NEED to have something under them because the marker goes right through the coffee filter.
Fall is a time of harvest, back to school, and being thankful. I love the colors, and falling back into the routines.
This is my favorite quick and easy thanksgiving craft, and the end result is always SO pretty, no matter how you end up crafting it. These turkeys will be completely unique to the person who created it.
Coffee Filter Turkey Craft with Markers
Go ahead and grab the printable directions at the bottom of this post so you can easily refer back when you're ready.
You'll find a complete list of these on the recipe below, but to get you started, all you really need in a coffee filter, markers, construction paper, glue, and the turkey body printable.
I suggest using Ultra Clean Washable Markers “Extra Max”, because the colors are super bright and create really beautiful turkeys.
Using markers to create these turkeys leads to a unique blending of colors and a level of control you likely won't get using watercolors, but that is another great option if you don't have markers on hand.
PIN for later:
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Turkey Body Printable
It's hard to find that perfect turkey body when looking online, so I created my own. My husband called it the “Hei Hei” of turkeys, which is just the look I was going for!
I can't help but laugh every time I see this little guy's silly face.
Tell me where to send your turkey body below:
Prepare Your Coffee Filter Turkey
I love putting together everything ahead of time to make sure everything is super easy for the kids. So grab an old paper bag (or get one from the grocery store next time you go) and rip it up and lay it down on the table, lay out markers, and give them a coffee filter.
This is a great opportunity to allow them to try lots of different shapes, and see how they will blend together in your final product. As you can see in the picture above, there is a LOT of marker that goes right through these filters, so make sure you have paper or something down underneath so you aren't accidentally ruining your tables.
I originally created this with two of my children, and the third walked in later and joined us. He ended up creating a turkey completely unique to him. It had all of the colors of the rainbow, and he cut it out to be much smaller, and instead of my turkey body he created his own, which is just SO him. Colorful, unique, and fun. My other two children are great listeners, but my one child marches to the beat of his own drum, and I love it!
So I encourage you, let your child lead you on this. You'll be so suprised and happy when you see what they create with your guidance.
How to Create a Coffee Filter Turkey
For full instructions, scroll to the bottom of this post to get a handy printable guide to this craft.
First things first, you need color your turkey. Grab those markers are get to it!
THEN you will add your turkey body, and glue it all down onto construction paper.
We liked putting together the turkeys first, and then laying them over a few different construction papers before we picked the best one. Some children chose their favorite color, others chose complimentary colors (the color on the opposite side of the color wheel).
Adapt These Turkey Thanksgiving Crafts For Younger Kids
To make this craft a little easier, tape down the coffee filter to make it easier to color on, and less likely to wiggle away.
If your child has a design in mind, they can sketch it out a bit before they put color down on paper.
Go ahead and change the colors up, not all turkeys have to be red, yellow, orange and brown marker colors. My daughter created a blue and purple turkey, and my son made one all the colors of the rainbow!
Adapt Turkey Activity For Older Kids
There are so many ways to change this craft up. My child created his own turkey, and glued it all together separately.
We then decided to name our turkeys, and he wrote a whole story about his turkey.
You can also make it more challenging by saying things like “you need to create orange in your turkey, but only using yellow and red”, and see how they work, or other challenges could be making them symmetrical, or have a certain number of shapes inside. The possibilities are endless!
What Does This Activity for Preschoolers Teach Them?
Everything is a learning experience in this house. This craft is great for scissor skills if your child is cutting out their turkey.
Another thing they'll learn about how color blending. It's so cool to watch the colors blend after you spray them with water. The younger children really love the magic involved here.
What Will Kids Learn?
They'll get to flex their creative muscles, which is my favorite thing to do with my children!
Do you have a child who loves drawing? Click here to see my gift guide for little artists, including everything I bought for my son last year to blossom his love of art.
What can do you now? Go ahead and hit that print button below, and start creating! You'll love what your children create with this fun craft!
Happy Crafting!
Coffee Filter Turkey Craft with Kids
One way to make your home festive this year is with a coffee filter turkey craft. All you need are some coffee filters, markers, and a printable turkey template-then color your coffee filter with markers and attach it to the printable template. Not only does this make for a pretty decoration but it's also educational for kids who can learn about colors and patterns!
Materials
Tools
Instructions
- Download your printable turkey body by clicking here. Then print it out
- Use your scissors to cut out the free printable turkey body you got in the last step
- Flatten out your white coffee filter. Color your coffee filter with washable markers. I HIGHLY recommend doing this on top of a piece of cardboard or newspaper. It will DEFINITELY go through the filter, so be prepared for that!
- Use any color you'd like, but brown, red, orange, and yellow are traditional turkey and thanksgiving colors. Encourage them to practice different styles like symmertry, or creating different shapes or even mixing colors to see what they can create when water is added.
- Once the coffee filter is mostly covered in color, spray with your squirt bottle to spread the colors. A little goes a long way!
- Wait until it's dry
- If you'd like to cut your filter, now is the time to do so. If you fold it in half several times, you can cut a rounded edge, and this will create a feathered look.
- Pick a construction paper color that goes well with your turkey. We picked blue because it was a beautiful contrast to the reds and yellows. My other children picked their favorite colors.
- Glue your coffee filter in the upper middle of your construction paper. Make sure there is enough room for your turkey to sit on top nicely.
- Glue your turkey body onto your colorful (and dry!) coffee filter as you see fit.
Notes
You can write a name along the body of the belly to remember which turkey belongs to which kid.
Another fun thing you can do is let your child take the lead. Create a turkey the way explained here, and then see what they'd like to do. This lead my son to create his own turkey face, and color his turkey in a rainbow sequence, because he loves color. Let your child take the lead, and trust their artistic abilities. It's so fun to see what they create.
