So we just had our monthly Craft and Sensory Day with my son and nephews (all ages 1-2) and this month was Thanksgiving theme! I absolutely love handprint and footprint crafts. I think they are adorable and we will love to look back at how little they were! But, it's not all that much fun for the kids so we painted their hands and feet and then let them free paint for the next project. Even the baby did finger painting! While everything was drying, I had a sensory bin set up to keep them entertained. Here is what we did:
Handprint & Footprint Turkey
What you need:
•Red, orange, yellow and brown non-toxic washable paint
•White Paper
•Orange Paper (You could just paint the beak if you don't have orange paper)
•Googly eyes
•Elmer's Glue (or something similar)
Have wet paper towels ready to wipe down their hands in between colors. We used red, orange and yellow for handprints. These will be the feathers of the turkey. Just paint their little hand and push down on the paper. Make sure to get all of their little fingers pressed down. I do not dip their hands or feet in paint. I brush it on with a paintbrush. I find it to be less messy and wastes less paint.
Next, is the footprint. This should be brown for the turkey's body. Same thing as the hands, I painted their feet and stuck them on the paper. A bigger kid could probably do it standing but we had them sit for stability and pushed their foot on the paper.
We let them dry. Cut out around each hand and the foot. Line them up with the feather hands spread out behind the footprint body. Glue together. Glue on eyes. Cut out an orange triangle for the beak and glue on.
Free Painting Turkey
What you need:
Red, orange, yellow and brown non-toxic washable paint
White Paper (Paint paper is glossy and doesn't rip)
Orange Paper (You could just paint the beak if you don't have orange paper)
Googly eyes
Elmer's Glue (or something similar)
Piece of cardboard (optional)
*These are the same items as the above project so that it is easy to do both at the same time. I used cardboard from a shipping box.
We gave each of the boys a white sheet of paper, with red, yellow and orange paint. They had a variety of sponge brushes, paintbrushes and of course their fingers to paint with. They did free painting but we encouraged them to cover as much of the sheet as possible.
We cut out turkey bodies from a piece of a cardboard box to give it a little dimension but you could also use brown construction paper or white paper and paint it brown. If you use the cardboard, I recommend painting it brown (even though it's already brown) to make it look more finished.
When everything is dry, you can cut out feathers from their painting. JJ is the baby and his painting was small so we just cut smaller feathers. Then you can fan out the feathers, glue them together, glue the body on top with eyes and another beak.
I have included stencils for a turkey body and 2 different feather sizes but we just did it free hand.
Thanksgiving Sensory Bin
What you need:
Dry Chickpeas
Corn Kernels
Plastic Containers
Construction Paper
Googly Eyes
Plastic Containers
Scoopers
Tongs
For this sensory bin, I made a "Feed the Turkeys" setup. I dyed chickpeas red orange and yellow. To color the chickpeas, you had dry chick peas to a ziploc bag with a little bit of non-toxic paint and shake shake shake! Then lay them out on a cookie sheet to dry over night. I also included corn kernels. This sensory bin would not be great for very young toddlers or babies that tend to put things in their mouths.
Next I found a few different plastic containers and added construction feathers, eyes and beaks to make them look like turkeys. I gave them scoopers and tongs and encouraged them to fill up the turkeys!
Thanksgiving Snack:
And of course what would be a day of toddler fun without food?! So I made a fr turkey using a red, yellow and green apple slices for the feathers, a brown pear for his body and cheddar cheese to make his feet and beak.
Hope you have some Thanksgiving fun with your little one!
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