Turkey Decorating Fun for Toddlers and Preschoolers

This is a fun turkey decorating activity that both toddlers and preschoolers can enjoy! And this colander turkey activity is a great Thanksgiving activity for fine-motor coordination and concentration, too!

You’ll simply need a colander with holes (not slots), printable for the turkey head, and craft feathers or printed feathers. 

We used to have one that used a template that is no longer free. This year, I used a free Full Page Colored Turkey Template from Monday Mandala.  Printabulls also has free turkey templates. There are some great choices for kids who want to color the turkey head. You might need to adjust the print size according to your colander.

I had a small colander from a grocery store, so I printed the Monday Mandala template at 100% and cut out the turkey head with wattle. For a larger colander, you might want to print it out at a larger size.  These are also a possibility from TPT for a free printable with both the turkey and printable feathers. Colored craft feathers are a fun option that I used this year. 

We had the craft feathers in the photo that were two sizes. I recommend getting one size (larger feathers for larger colanders and smaller feathers for smaller colanders). 

We had this out for my 19-month-old granddaughter, Arabella, on Thanksgiving. It’s a great activity for that age!

Turkey Practical Life and Color Matching Activity

This is the activity and writeup we had before from a previous turkey unit.

This was a fun activity to prepare. I used the the Turkey Template by The Mommy Teacher to create a turkey from a colander. (Note: The printable is no longer free, but Printabulls has free turkey templates.) Because I had found a small colander at the grocery store, I printed out the turkey template at 50%. With a larger colander, I would have used the larger size.

I also printed out the Turkey Feather Color Game from TOADally Tots for the feathers. (Update: TOADally Tots is no longer available, so free colored feathers from Teachers Pay Teachers could work. These are a possibility for both the turkey and feathers.) Colored craft feathers would be a fun option. I used a large plastic tray from Montessori Services.

When I laminated the feathers before cutting them out, they were stiff enough to insert into the colander holes for a practical life activity. 

You could use this as a color-matching activity as well. I only used two feathers of each color for the matching activity. With a child who isn’t comfortable with identifying colors yet, you could place a feather on the table or rug in front of the child and ask him or her to find the matching feather. Then he or she could insert the feathers into the colander. A child who’s more comfortable with color names could be asked to find the red feathers and so on before inserting them into the colander turkey.

Again, colored craft feathers would work very well instead of the printable feathers. You could also use colored pipe cleaners and have the child place matching colored beads on each pipe cleaner after it’s inserted into a hole in the colander.

Just adapt everything for what works best for you and your child or classroom!

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