Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Turkey Time

When I was teaching I "cooked up" these Turkeys with my 2nd Graders.


I thought it would be fun to have my kids make one, but we altered the design just a bit. In school we glued pieces together and stapled the pieces that would be stuffed. I thought stitching the pieces together would be a lot cuter...and good practice for hand/eye coordination for my kids.

Here are the supplies I used:
1. I used 1 paper grocery bag for the body. I cut out 2 pieces since they would be stitched together.
2. I used 1 sheet of redish 12x12 scrapbook paper to cut out 10 tail feather pieces (this will make 5 feathers) and 1 gobble
3. Yellow paper scraps to make 4 feet pieces and 1 beak
4. 5 bamboo skewers (could use Popsicle sticks)
5. 2 pieces of rope for the legs
6. Twine to hang the turkey
7. Hole punch
8. Stuffing (I used shredded paper)
9. Brown Thread
10. Needle
11. Paper Piercer
12. Hot Glue Gun
13. Scissors
14. Alphabet Stamps
15. Foam Sponge Brush
16. Acrylic Paint
17. 2 Googly eyes

I started by drawing my pieces I needed. I cut out two pieces for the turkey body from the paper grocery bag. I put the pieces together like they would be sewn together. Using the paper piercer, I punched holes in the body where it would be stitched. This way the kids could stitch the body together easily.


I repeated the same steps to make the 5 tail feathers, nose and the gobble.




Look at that concentration!


My daughter has decided she loves sewing. She thought this was just about the greatest thing she could possibly be doing.


After they stitched the feathers together, we inserted the wood skewers to give support to the feathers. This will allow the feathers to stand up straight and tall and not flop over with time.

The feet pieces were stitched together with the rope end between the two pieces.

The body was stitched together with the leg pieces sandwiched between them...leaving the head portion unstitched.


We used the foam stamps to stamp "Give Thanks" on the body of the turkey with acrylic paint.


When the paint dried, we stuffed the body with shredded paper. We stitched the eyebrows on the head.


Next, we stitched half the head and then stuffed the head. We finished up by stitching up the remainder of the head.




The remainder of the pieces just needed to be hot glued onto the bird.


Look how cute he is!


What a cute and inexpensive project...we had everything on hand...this project was totally free. FREE! Even more than the fact that this project was free, I like the reminder to "Give Thanks." If a turkey...the ultimate Thanksgiving martyr...can be thankful at Thanksgiving, shouldn't that be a good reminder for us to be thankful for what we have?

Linking Up Here:


”lil

1 comment:

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