Fun Turkey Crafts for Kids

Even though I’m a pro crafter, I still feel like Thanksgiving gets lost in the crush between Halloween and Christmas. But it can be an important and meaningful holiday, and it’s definitely something worth crafting for. Even if you’re not making Thanksgiving crafts yourself, here are some turkey crafts for kids that you might just want to jump in and make, too.

Also see my easy Thanksgiving crafts for kids post from a couple of years ago for more ideas.

This curly turkey craft from Easy Peasy and Fun is super easy to make with a free printable for the turkey. If you already have construction paper available this is a project you probably already have the supplies for and can set up pretty quickly.

The chalk pastel turkey from Projects with Kids is definitely one that I would make myself, too. You can do it with pastels or even with regular chalk if you don’t have any chalk pastels handy. This one also has a printable you can grab from their website for the turkey’s body.

If you’re a coffee drinker a coffee filter turkey like this one from Darcy and Brian would be easy for your kids to make. Kids can also decorate the clothespin and these would be super cute on the Thanksgiving table.

Color in patterns to make a 3D patterned turkey with the printable from The Craft Train. This is another one that kids of all ages and adults can have fun with, because who doesn’t like coloring?

This one is a slightly different kind of turkey craft, but kids will have a lot of fun with this little turkey pompom popper made out of a paper cup. It’s a classic STEM experiment with a holiday twist that will have kids and adults alike popping pompoms all over the place. Head to The Best Vinyl Cutters for the instructions.

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Have you read?

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