Folded Paper Turkey Craft for Kids (with Free Printable Template)

Folded Paper Turkey Craft for Kids Post Preview: Using a free printable template and inexpensive supplies, kids can make their own folded paper turkey craft for Thanksgiving!

I love being able to make inexpensive crafts with kids. Well, honestly – I love working on pricier crafts with kids too. However, as a throwback to a time when I was doing a lot of crafting with a whole classroom of kids, inexpensive crafts are great.

The craft that I’m going to share today is an easy and inexpensive Thanksgiving craft for kids. This makes it perfect for working on with children one-on-one or doing with a whole classroom.

This latest Thanksgiving craft is a Folded Paper Turkey Craft. It will involve some fine motor skills for the accordion folds, so tackling it with a large group of very young children could possibly be frustrating. However, you know your kids better than I do, of course.

This craft also includes a free template for the turkey body. So, no worries about being able to draw a turkey. I’ve got you covered!

If you really don’t want to tackle the fan folds, you could also try this printable 3D Turkey Cut Out Craft from the site instead.

Template Note: The free template for the turkey is available as a link in the supply section as well as toward the end of this post.

Related Reading:

• Thankful Turkey 3D Art Activity for Thanksgiving
• Pumpkin Coloring Pages for Kids and Adults (13 pages)
• Thanksgiving Crossword Puzzle for Kids

How to Make a Folded Paper Turkey Craft for Kids

As I mentioned, the folded paper turkey craft is a great inexpensive craft. You might even have most of the supplies already on hand. Score!

Supplies Needed for Your Turkey Craft

1. Colored construction paper or colored printer paper
2. Brown or white cardstock (brown if you want to make the turkey body brown and white if you want your kids to color it in themselves)
3. Pencil
4. Scissors
5. Craft glue
6. Googly eyes
7. Turkey template

Instructions for How to Make Your Folded Paper Turkey Craft

1. Grab some fun colored papers for the tail feathers of the turkey. Fall-inspired colors are a nice touch, but I would let children pick the colors they prefer to use. Trace the tail feather pattern template on the colored construction paper or printer paper and cut them out.

2. Create small and even accordion folds (fan folds) lengthwise on the feather cutouts. 

3. Hold the accordion folded paper in the middle of the piece and press on that point.

4. Fold the accordion folded paper in half at the point where you were pressing down. Join the straight ends (leaving the curved end facing outwards). Apply glue to attach the straight ends.

5. Press the two sides together to make sure the shape doesn’t come apart. After you’re finished, your piece should look like the picture below. This will be one of the turkey’s tail feathers.

6. Repeat steps one through five to create more tail feathers for your turkey. Seven tail feathers should work well on your turkey.

7. Next, you will trace the body parts of the turkey using the free printable template. Trace the body and the wings on brown cardstock, unless you want to use white cardstock and have your kids color the turkey.

You can trace the other parts of the turkey (beak, wattle, and legs) onto colored printer paper or colored construction papers. Again, if you prefer, you can do it all on white paper and have your kids color the parts instead.

What’s a wattle, you may ask? Here are fun facts about turkeys for kids that they might want to check out.

8. Attach the following: wings on both sides of the turkey body, the googly eyes on the head, and the beak and wattle below the eyes to complete it.

9. Trace and cut out the tail base from a piece of brown cardstock.

10. Attach the accordion/fan folded tail feathers onto the tail base cutout. Attach the paper feathers around the curved end of the tail base.

11. Continue to add paper tail feathers to the tail base until you’re happy with how the turkey looks.

12. Last, attach the tail piece on the back of the paper turkey body to cover the middle of the feathers on the back.

13. Have fun with your completed folded paper turkey craft!

Printable Turkey Template

In case you didn’t grab the printable turkey template in the supplies section, I wanted to make sure you could get it toward the end of the post as well.

This template is only for personal or classroom use. It may not be used for commercial purposes. It also may not be uploaded to other places online, such as other blogs/sites, Google Drive (unless it is private just for you), Scribd, etc.

Thanks!

Download Your Free Printable Turkey Craft Template Here

Download Your Free Turkey Template Here

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