Happy Hooligans

Crafts and Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers to Tweens

Preschool Turkey Craft with Toilet Rolls and Paint Chip Samples

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This fun and easy turkey craft toilet roll turkey is made with a cardboard roll, paint chip samples and tissue paper. It’s perfect for toddlers and preschoolers to make as a Thanksgiving table topper for your holiday dinner table.

It might seem a bit early to be sharing turkey crafts, but in Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving more than a month before they do in the U.S., so my American friends and followers might just want to pin this idea for next month.

P.S. You can see all of our turkey crafts here, and tons of cardboard roll crafts here.

paint chip and toilet roll turkey craft for Thanksgiving

To make fun and easy turkey craft, you’ll need:

supplies for paint chip - toilet roll turkeys

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Supplies:

Ok, forgive me for the lack of children in the photos today.

We got started crafting in the basement, and it occurred to me, when the 1 and 4-year-old were well and truly into the paint and glue, that I had left my camera upstairs; so just pretend that this post is full of adorable hooligans crafting happily.

3 paint chip / toilet roll turkeys

Making your toilet roll turkey

Cut your cardboard roll to the size that you want it.  We took our toilet rolls down to about 3 inches.

Paint the toilet roll brown.  Not necessary of course because toilet rolls are already a greyish-brown which is a very turkey-appropriate colour, but painting makes every project more fun, so why not?

While your paint dries, cut a few paint chip samples into “feathers” (I just cut narrow ovals with pointy ends).

When your paint is dry (a blast from a hairdryer helps speed that process up),  help your child staple the feathers to the back of the cardboard tube.  The hooligans LOVE the stapler, but going through this many layers required some extra muscle, so I placed my hand on the stapler along with both of theirs and we worked together to secure everything in place.

Lastly glue on your turkey’s eyes and beak (cut from a yellow paint chip sample) and a bit of crumpled, red tissue paper “wattle” under the turkey’s beak.toilet roll turkey craft with paint chip samples

Note: For the record a turkey does NOT have a red comb on top of its head like ours do in the photos.  For some reason, I thought they did, but when I googled an image of a real turkey, to show the hooligans, after we’d made our craft, I discovered I was wrong.

Oopsy!

More Easy Thanksgiving Crafts for Kids:

Turkey Footprint Craft

Fall Napkin Rings

Handprint crafts for Fall

 

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Comments

  1. Jessica L.

    Cute! So, do you think the paint department guys are catching on to the use of paint chips for crafts? I was at Lowes yesterday picking out paint chips, and I tend to be very indecisive, so I was grabbing a ton. The man in the paint department walked up to me and instead of saying “may I help you?” he said “what are you doing?” I explained I was going to be picking out paint colors, but I have a hard time deciding. I mean, what else could I possibly be doing with all of those paint chips? 😉 I really am choosing paint colors. But I’ll happily hang onto them for other uses, once my decision is made. 🙂

    Reply

    • happyhooligans

      Haha! Maybe, Jessica. That’s why I just ask if they have any swatches that they’d be willing to part with for our crafting purposes. There are colours that aren’t popular for room painting, but are great for crafting with – think bright blues, reds, greens, oranges etc.

      Reply

    • happyhooligans

      We’ve never actually used them for crafting, Natasha. Good idea though! I’m sure if you google “paint stick crafts” you’ll probably find lots of ideas.

      Reply

  4. elizabeth

    jus love the u love ur kids..the hooligans ..i jus love the name..hahah..and off course the craft ideas u share with us…love u…god blessss u…alwasy looking forward to ur posts…keep up d gud wrk…..love to see ideas about classroom decors from u ..i handle grade 1…

    Reply

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