Start your Thanksgiving crafting with a fun paper cup turkey craft. It uses materials that you already have in your household: a paper cup, a paper plate and yarn. Plus, it’s simple and super cute.

Your preschooler may need a bit of help with the yarn weaving but your kindergartner or older kid will be able to pull the craft off on his/her own.

This turkey will look great on the mantel as a holiday decoration or you can also use it as a Thanksgiving table centerpiece. I’m sure the kids will be so proud when guests admire their paper cup turkey craft.

We’ve used quite a few paper cups this fall for our Halloween characters. They turned out so adorable that we decided to include them more in our crafting. Our turkey may not have a glowing nose like the witches, ghosts, Jack’O’Lanterns or Frankenstein but we gave it a colorful paper plate tail instead.

Paper plate crafts are among our favorites. What can be more fun than a sturdy material that can be painted or cut and turned into anything you can dream of?

If you’re looking for more Thanksgiving ideas, you can check out our turkey crafts or the entire easy kids craft collection.

RELATED: This I Am Thankful For spinner is a fun Thanksgiving craft for preschoolers and older kids to use in the classroom or at home.

Paper cup turkey craft

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Supplies:

white paper cup
paper plate
yarn
orange and yellow ochre craft paint
paintbrush
googly eyes
red and yellow paper
glue
scissors
clothespin
tape

How to make a turkey craft

Start by painting the paper cup yellow ochre. If you don’t have yellow ochre paint, you could also go for beige, ivory or brown.

While you wait for the paint has dried completely, trace the turkey beak on yellow paper and the snood on red paper. Cut the beak and snood out and glue them on the paper cup. Add the googly eyes, too.

Cut the bottom of the paper plate and paint it orange. Set it aside to dry.

Once the paper plate is dry, cut slits around the paper plate.

You can use one color yarn for the tail or alternate several colors. We used three four colors: yellow, two shades of red and light purple.

Tape one end of your yarn to the back of the paper plate and start weaving through the slits in the paper plate. If you’re using several colors, like we did, tape the end of your first yarn to the back of the paper plate and move on to the next color yarn.

Glue the paper plate to the back of the paper cup and secure them together with a clothespin for a while, until they stick together. As an alternative, you can use hot glue or low temp glue, if kids want to do the gluing.

Paper Cup Turkey Craft

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Active Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Difficulty: easy

Use a paper cup, a paper plate and yarn to make a beautiful turkey craft for Thanksgiving. Great for kids to practice their fine motor skills.

Materials

white paper cup
paper plate
yarn
orange and yellow ochre craft paint
googly eyes
red and yellow paper
glue
tape

Tools

paintbrush
scissors
clothespin

Instructions

Start by painting the paper cup yellow ochre. If you don’t have yellow ochre paint, you could also go for beige, ivory or brown.
Trace the turkey beak on yellow paper and the snood on red paper. Cut the beak and snood out and glue them on the paper cup. Add the googly eyes, too.
Cut the bottom of the paper plate and paint it orange. Set it aside to dry. Once the paper plate is dry, cut slits around the paper plate.
Tape one end of your yarn to the back of the paper plate and start weaving through the slits in the paper plate. If you’re using several colors, like we did, tape the end of your first yarn to the back of the paper plate and move on to the next color yarn.
Glue the paper plate to the back of the paper cup and secure them together with a clothespin for a while, until they stick together. As an alternative, you can use hot glue or low temp glue, if kids want to do the gluing.

Notes