Thanksgiving is next week in the United States, and we are re-making our cardboard roll turkey crafts! My daughter had fun making these a few years ago, and after my son saw them on my blog (originally published in November 2017), he asked if he could make them, too!
I’ll explain how to make cardboard roll turkeys and also how we have used them to teach important words of gratitude in 4 languages! For those who are learning Chinese with their kids like our family, I’ve created a printable template to review relevant vocabulary.
I hope you can enjoy this Thanksgiving activity with your kids!
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Thanksgiving craft to encourage language and discuss gratitude
Although historically Thanksgiving is controversial, for our family, we try to use the holiday to count our blessings and express gratitude.
For this Thanksgiving craft, we talked about everything that we are thankful for in multiple languages. After all, the United States of America is a country of immigrants, and we believe in encouraging minority languages!
In our family:
- My husband speaks English and Spanish
- I speak English and Mandarin Chinese
- Our former nanny spoke English and Korean
- My 7-year-old daughter speaks English, Chinese, and some Korean
- My 4-year-old son speaks English and Chinese (but has forgotten Korean)
The result: quadrilingual thankful paper roll turkeys – say that 10 times fast!
Paper roll turkeys – easiest turkey craft for kids of all ages!
If you’re wondering what age this activity is suitable for, my first kid did this craft when she was 4 -years old with her 7-year-old friend. Now my oldest kid is 7 and my son is 4.
Preschoolers like my son will likely be able to cut the turkey feathers and arrange the face, but they might need help writing or aligning the words. Elementary school kids will likely be able to make these independently.
Paper roll turkey craft: What you need
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- Cardboard toilet paper rolls
- Construction paper
- Scissors
- Marker
- Tape
- Feather templates:
- Optional: wiggle eyes! My kids love these, but to avoid plastic, you can cut out white circles and add a black dot in the middle.
Paper roll turkey craft: How to make these for Thanksgiving
- Cut construction paper into multiple feathers
- Cut triangle for nose and red oblong shape for the snood
- Discuss what’s good in life and write it down on each feather or use the printable template
- Tape eyes to toilet paper roll
- Tape nose and snood
- If your child is reading, encourage them to practice reading the words on each feather
- Tape the feathers on the middle-back of the paper roll
We are so thankful for God, family, food, clothes, books, teachers, sunshine, among many other things!
Have you tried this easy turkey craft with paper rolls?
If you try this Thanksgiving activity with your children or students, please let us know in the comments below!
On Instagram and Facebook, tag a photo @chalkacademy and use the hashtag #ChalkAcademy so our family can check out the action!
We love to hear about how other families are learning Chinese, Korean, English, Spanish, and other languages!
More Thanksgiving Activities and Resources for Children
- 9 Chinese Thanksgiving Activities (Free Printables)
- 10 Thanksgiving 感恩节 YouTube Videos for Kids in Mandarin Chinese
- Thanksgiving Picture Books in English & Chinese
More Educational Autumn Activities and Resources
- 10 Fun and Free Chinese Teaching Activities with Leaves! (Free Printable)
- 爱心树 The Giving Tree in Chinese and English – Review and Book-Based Activity
- 5 Easy Fine Motor Math Activities with Hole-Punched Leaves!
- 16 Tree and Autumn Books for Kids in Chinese and English
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