To help my children focus on gratefulness, we made a fun Thanksgiving Kleenex box turkey craft for kids. This is a hands-on, inexpensive turkey craft that teaches important character lessons.
Want more thankfulness activities? Check out my free gratitude coloring sheet.
Thanksgiving Kleenex Box Turkey Craft for Kids
This is a wonderful turkey craft for kids of all ages. Parent prep and assistance will be needed for some. You want to challenge your children but not overwhelm them in the process. Younger kids will need you to cut things out, and they will glue them in place. They might need your help holding the templates in place while they trace. You know your kids and can gauge what kind of assistance they need as you go along.
Don’t expect perfection. They are learning. Enjoy and let them enjoy the process and the outcome.
Character-Building Series: A Focus on Thankfulness
This turkey craft is part of a series I have created on my blog where kids can learn and develop important character qualities.
Welcome to my character-building education series, where we work on 52 traits throughout the year. 52 traits? Yes! That is one character-building trait for every single week of the year.
More good news! Each trait comes with over a week’s worth of lessons. You could work on character with your kids every single day of the year if you chose to follow along.
This character-building activity focuses on thankfulness. Here is our initial lesson on thankfulness. If following the series, always do that lesson first. Click here for all of my lessons on thankfulness.
Materials Needed to Make this Thankfulness Turkey Box
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- Empty Keenex Box
- Assortment of Fall-Colored and Patterned Scrapbook Paper, like this or this
- Paper Bag Brown Craft Roll (Can just use a store paper bag)
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Brown Stock Paper (see note)
- Orange Stock Paper (see note)
- Red Stock Paper (see note)
- Craft Eyes
- Glue Dots, Glue Tape, Glue Stick, or White Glue – While all of these work, glue tape is my new favorite craft product.
- Tape
- Free Printable Leaf and Turkey Body Outline
- Free “I am Thankful for…” Printable
Note: While I linked to the stock paper colors individually, it will be less expensive to buy a rainbow pack of colors.
How to Make this Fun Kleenex Box Turkey Craft for Kids
- Wrap the Kleenex box in brown paper. You will need to get creative in how you cut and tuck the top into the box. Work together with your kids, depending on their age. Some will be able to do it on their own, but you get the opportunity to teach how to cut, wrap, and tape a box.
- Print out my free leaf and turkey body printable onto stock paper. Cut out or let your kids cut out the shapes to make a template.
- Have your kids trace the leaf shape onto the back of different colored fall stock papers. You will need 11 feathers per turkey. Cut these out.
- Trace the body template onto brown stock paper. Cut this out.
- Cut a beak out of orange stock paper. This is a diamond shape folded in half.
- Cut a gobble out of red paper.
- Use glue tape (best method), glue dots, glue stick (second best method), or white glue to glue everything in place (eyes, beak, gobble, feathers). Glue the turkey body to the box first. Glue the feathers in place next. Fan out five feathers on the back. Then, layer in the next six feathers. Finally, add the eyes, beak, and gobble.
Character-Building Component in this Thankfulness Craft
The final piece incorporates the character-building component into the craft. This is a craft with purpose: to help kids build an attitude of gratitude.
Because I’m a teacher by trade, I’m going to offer a lesson plan for this Thanksgiving activity.
Subject: Thankfulness
Objective: Kids will learn the importance of being thankful in life.
Bible Verse: “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Ask:
- Why is it important to be thankful?
- What are you thankful for?
Write:
Print out my free “I am Thankful for…” Printable. Cut these into individual cards. This is easiest done with a paper cutter. After asking kids what they are thankful for, write these things down on the cards. Older kids will be able to write these down on their own.
Making this Thanksgiving Kleenex box turkey craft can happen before Thanksgiving. On the day of Thanksgiving, it would be fun to have this box placed in a central location. People could all write what they are grateful for on the cards with their names attached. Then, these could be read around the table as you feast together.
I hope you take the time to slow down this season and teach your kids the importance of being appreciative for all the blessings in life.
Note: This post was originally written in 2012, but it was recently updated with easier-to-follow instructions.
Want More Activities for Kids that Focus on Thankfulness?
I love your twist with the box covered in a brown paper bag! So cute! Thanks for linking back to me and giving me credit. I am loving your blog! Your hankful wreath is to die for cute!!
This is very cute! Thanks for sharing!
We just made ours! Thanks for sharing! Too cute!
Yeah – I’m hoping you all had fun making it.
where is the template for the turkey and her wings>
That’s a super good question. I think I need to dig out my old computer. I can’t find it at all. Dropbox had issues, and it broke my links. Most I have saved on this computer and have been uploading them a different way. I can’t find this one but will try and find it and fix the link. So sorry, and I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to write back.
Have you found the link for feathers and body? Want to make this for our Thanksgiving this year.
Thanks
Yes! I don’t know why I didn’t have it in there before. I’ve added it now. Beginning blogger error. Here’s the link: https://meaningfulmama.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Thanksgiving-Turkey-Printable-3.pdf Have fun with it! I was out of town so sorry this took so long.
Where u able to find the templates?
Oh – man. I forgot to get back to you. I looked on my old computer and couldn’t find them. Then, I got distracted. A bunch of my links to dropbox went haywire for some reason. I’m so sorry. I think you’ll have to eyeball it. Make one that you like and then just trace it. Have fun with the craft.
Thanks so much for this great little craft, jodidurr! My granddaughter and I just finished ours, and it sits splendidly on a high shelf, waiting for Thanksgiving. I cut a large-size Kleenex box in half and slid one side into the other for the body, and it fit exactly into a brown paper lunch bag! We copied your turkey but added three wavy lines in front for feathers, and also “wing” lines on the sides, and outlined the turkey and his eyes with dark brown marker. My granddaughter named him “Stuffy”, and wants to keep him after Thanksgiving! I also appreciate the thankful cards; I made a little stand out of them to match one set of the feathers, and it sits next to him with pencils ready for us to write what we are grateful for. My first one is for sister crafters who SHARE! Happy Thanksgiving!
How did you enjoy it during Thanksgiving? I hope it was a lot of fun and a huge blessing for your family. Thanks so much for checking in to let me know you were doing this activity with your granddaughter. It’s so much fun to hear when people are doing my projects. You also made some great sounding adaptations to the original craft. I love it when people use their own creativity.
We had a wonderful time with the “thankful turkey”, as we called him. After our main meal and before dessert, we took out the notes of gratitude and took turns reading them and guessing who wrote them. Most were, appropriately, expressing gratitude for family, friends, and freedom, but when someone read out “Michael’s!”…well, they all knew I was the author of THAT note! I have a great picture if there is some way to send it to you. Thanks again for the great ideas and especially the little printable notes. I’ll be a frequent visitor to your site!