Adorable Thanksgiving Turkey Handprint Poem Printable
This easy tutorial will show you how to make a cute turkey handprint craft with your children that you can treasure for years to come. Download the Thanksgiving Turkey Handprint Poem Free Printable for a fun Thanksgiving craft and handprint keepsake perfect for a preschool craft for just fun crafting a home with the family.
Handprint and footprint crafts make such wonderful keepsakes! Time is a thief when it comes to babies, toddlers and preschoolers, those little hands will be big before you know it. As a mom of three kids, handprint crafts have become something I really treasure with my own kids.
Last year we played around with some easy turkey handprint crafts one afternoon and had so much fun! All we had that day was either dark colored construction paper, or these random tiny paper plates… so paper plates it was!
They turned out so cute, but I realized after the fact that these adorable handprints would have made such a sweet gift for their grandparents if they were on a piece of card stock with a poem. I have a feeling they’ll love this adorable craft, and I hope your family does too!
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Easy Turkey Handprint Craft with Paint
The great thing about this turkey handprint craft is that I’ve created a free printable template for you. All you have to do is download the turkey handprint poem free printable, apply a little paint to your child’s hand, and you have a sweet art keepsake!
It’s so simple and only takes a few minutes using basic art supplies you already have at home. It’s also a great craft for kids of all ages. My 6 year old was just as excited as my 2 year old to get in on this one. I think it’s the messy paint that sells them on it 😉
Supplies Needed to Make a Turkey Handprint Keepsake
To make this adorable Thanksgiving craft for kids, you’ll need a few simple supplies you most likely already have at home:
- Free printable turkey handprint poem (scroll to get yours!)
- Craft paint (we used brown for the body, and chose the feather colors based on the paint we had)
- Paintbrushes
- Baby wipes
- Markers
- Paint palette or disposable plate
A few optional items:
- Small googly eyes & glue
- Feathers
- Scratch paper, newspaper or old posterboard for a craft tablecloth
How to Make a Thanksgiving Turkey Handprint with Poem
Creating this turkey craft for kids is so easy and quick. It’s perfect for a rainy afternoon and can easily be done for multiple children at once.
Step One: Download and print out the free handprint turkey poem printable I’ve created for you.
Scroll down to get the free printable poem to create this craft. After printing it out, I recommend laying it on a low table on top of a large piece of scrap paper or newsprint as a disposable tablecloth. This will help ensure any paint drops or rolling paint brushes don’t end up with paint on your furniture.
Step Two: Pour a little of each paint color you’d like to use on a paint palette or disposable plate.
This will allow you to quickly paint your child’s hand instead of trying to open paint colors at the same time. If you have enough paint brushes, use a different brush for each paint color.
Step Three: Lightly paint your child’s palm and fingers with paint.
You want to be sure it’s not too thick, or it will drip, but also not too thin of a layer, or it will dry before you’re ready. Make sure you thoroughly coat the entire bottom of their hand.
The turkey’s body is the palm and thumb of your child’s hand, and their remaining fingers are his feathers. What order you paint your child’s hand in is up to you, as are the colors. For the handprint turkey craft I used brown paint for the turkey’s body, and the feather colors were chosen by my kids based on the colors of paint we already had.
Older kids can probably paint their hands themselves, but just remember it takes 2 seconds for a paint covered handprint to end up on your furniture (clearly I speak from experience lol).
Have an extra paper plate nearby that you can rest the paintbrushes on in between children. If you don’t have enough paintbrushes, start with the lightest color first so you don’t have to keep stopping to rinse colors.
Step Four: Gently press their hand onto the poem printable.
Once your child’s hand is fully painted, ask your child to spread their fingers apart a little bit. Holding their hand as flat as possible, gently press their hand down onto the paper in the blank space above the poem.
Be sure their palm and all of their fingers have made full contact with the paper so that the turkey is recognizable. I usually make sure this happens by gently smushing each finger too.
Pull their hand back up off the paper in one smooth movement. If you’re concerned about the hand sticking to the paper, use your other hand to hold down the corner of the paper.
Step Five: Let the paint dry completely.
Once dry, allow your child to add their own special details. They can use the marker to draw an eye, or add a small googly eye with glue. They can also add a small beak and gobbler using an orange marker and a red marker, and of course little turkey legs using a black pen or marker.
Older kids might enjoy customizing their turkey handprint poem craft with paint. Instead of markers, paint an orange beak! Your kids can also add what they’re thankful for in the blank space where there’s room around the cute poem (perfect for this time of year).
If your kiddos want to, they can add real feathers as the turkey’s feathers, or construction paper ones to this fun Thanksgiving art project. Searching for a simple way to occupy young kids before Thanksgiving dinner? Use the free poem template printable pages for them to create their own turkeys! Skip the child’s handprints and use crayons, markers or other art supplies to make their own.
Don’t forget to add their name and the year! This Thanksgiving Turkey Handprint Poem Printable is a great keepsake, and also makes the perfect gift or Thanksgiving decoration if you put it into a simple frame. You’ll be able to see this adorable turkey handprint for years to come and remember how small they really were.
Tips for the best Handprint Turkey Keepsakes
Have an extra paper plate nearby that you can rest the paintbrushes on in between children.
Keep an open container of baby wipes nearby for a quick clean up before washing hands. I wipe my kids hands first with a baby wipe so that there’s less of a risk of paint transfer on the walk to the sink.
For young children (toddlers and preschoolers) I recommend using washable paint to create this fun keepsake. It’s much easier to wash off wiggly fingers (and clothing, just in case). For infants and young toddlers who don’t want their hands painted, you can create a footprint turkey instead! For this you’ll paint the entire bottom of the foot brown, and hand draw or paint feathers. You can also make simple ones out of different colors of construction paper too.
Be sure the paint dries completely before adding any extra touches to it, and don’t forget to add their name and the year it was created to this fun craft.
Get the Free Turkey Handprint Poem
We love free printables! This is a digital design- no physical product is sent to you. You will receive READY-TO-PRINT DIGITAL file in a PDF format that you can print at home or in any local or online print shop.
For best results I recommend printing this on plain white cardstock paper, but you can also use a regular piece of white paper.
You can print this file out again and again as many times as you would like!
This perfect Thanksgiving craft is free for you to use, but ONLY for personal use (or classroom use). Enter your information below to gain access to the free download, and the free printable PDF file will be sent to your email address immediately for instant download.
More Handprint Keepsake Crafts:
Mistletoes Easy Christmas Footprint Craft (Great Baby’s First Christmas Craft)
More Thanksgiving Crafts and Activities for Kids for Thanksgiving Fun:
Thanksgiving I am Thankful Turkey Headband Craft {Free Printable Template}
Simple Paper Bag Turkey Craft for Kids
I hope you and your family love this easy Thanksgiving craft. Happy Thanksgiving, from my family to yours!
If you enjoyed this craft, be sure to pin it on Pinterest using the image below to make it easier to find next time!
