Footprint Turkey Craft for Thanksgiving

We’ve made a lot of adorable turkey crafts over the years, but the footprint turkeys that my toddlers and preschoolers made today is by far my favourite Thanksgiving craft for young children. This little project is packed with fun. It’s a footprint craft (who doesn’t love a footprint craft?), a fun art activity and a bubble activity too!

Painting with Bubbles – Making our Turkey Feathers

I recently learned about painting with bubbles over at the Chocolate Muffin Tree. I’ve been itching to try it with the kids, and I thought bubble painting would be a great way to make the feathers for our footprint turkeys.

Supplies:

To paint with bubbles, you need:

• drinking straw
• shallow dish of water
• dish soap
• Food Coloring or  Tempera Paints
• paper

Bubble Painting with Tempera Paints:

1. If you’re using tempera liquid paints, simply add a couple of tbsps of paint and a squirt of dish soap to 1/2 cup of water and stir to combine in a shallow baking dish.
2. Have your child blow into the coloured bubble water through a drinking straw to create foamy puffs of bubbles. My toddlers and preschoolers were familiar with how to do this because I often set up this bubble tower activity to keep them entertained while I’m making lunch.
3. Press a piece of paper into the bubbly foam and lift it away to reveal your colourful bubble painting.

Bubble Painting with Food Colouring

If you’re using food colouring to colour your water, your bubble paintings might be quite light. To get the best results,  sprinkle some drops of food colouring right on top of the bubbles before making your prints.

Follow the same steps as above to make your food colouring bubble prints.

Allow your bubble paintings to dry before cutting out your feathers. We hung ours on the clothesline in the sunshine and they dried quickly.

Making our footprint turkeys:

Supplies:

• construction paper for turkey body and beak
• red tissue paper
• pencil
• scissors
• glue
• google eyes

While our bubble prints were drying, the Hooligans made some foot tracings and cut them out.  These would be the bodies of their turkeys.

Yes, her feet were wet. She had been sitting by the pond and decided she’d “cool her feet off” with her socks and shoes on.

Place your construction paper footprint on a piece of paper and glue the bottom half to the paper.

Cut “feathers” out of the bubble prints, and tuck these behind the top part of the footprint turkey and glue them in place.

Now glue the top part of the footprint down and add your turkey’s face.

To finish, add googly eyes, beaks, feet, and a crumpled piece of red tissue paper for the wattle.

Look at the way this 3 year old made the beak for his turkey.  How creative and realistic!

And you know what I love?

I LOVE how a two year old looks at his finished project, in complete awe, like he can’t even believe that he made it.

That never gets old.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You may also like:

Preschool Turkey Craft with Toilet Rolls and Paint Chip Samples

Painted Paper Plate Turkey Craft for Toddlers and Preschoolers

Wine Cork Turkey Decoration for Kids to Make

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Jackie Currie

Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.