Turkeys are cute and fascinating. Students love everything about these gobbling waddling creatures, including this I am Thankful Turkey!

We can’t help but be completely enthralled when we get into our Turkey facts and research project.
Diving into our stacks of Turkey Books is a fun way to incorporate this fall favorite into our literacy centers.
Students show off their emerging reading skills with Turkey Initial Sounds and Turkey Editable Sight Word Craftivity.
Because providing our little learners with crafts and curriculum activities helps them to learn new things without realizing they are learning.
So we find various things students enjoy to create right in our classroom. There are so many different crafts that make learning exciting.
This I am Thankful Turkey is a great way to bring crafts and literacy together in a hands-on way.
Want even more ways to integrate crafts into your curriculum? Be sure to take a look at our Endless Paper Craft Activity Mega Bundle.
Supply list for the I am Thankful Turkey:
- I am Thankful Turkey Template (download below!)
- Colored paper
- Scissors
- Paper glue
- Glitter (optional)
- Crayons
Getting the I am Thankful Turkey Ready:
To get this Thanksgiving craft ready, you’ll need to print the template. You can either print on white paper and have students color the entire thing or print the “parts” on colored paper for a little bit of variety. Next, you’ll cut out the turkey pieces from the template.

Making the I am Thankful Turkey Craft:
Students will cut out each piece for different parts of the turkey craft. You may want to have brown bodies and different colored feathers or let the students color the entire turkey any way that they choose.
Cutting and gluing is a great way to work on fine motor skills.
For our younger learners or students that may struggle to cut out all their turkey pieces, you may want to cut them out ahead of time.
To get this freebie, use the ‘click here to download’ button at the bottom of this page.
Students will then write what they are thankful for on each feather.
You can have them dictate their answers to an adult, copy words off a word bank, or sound out their words and kid-code or kid-spell each word.

After that, the feathers are glued on the turkey. I find it best to have a completed turkey so they can look at the example while putting theirs together.
Once the turkeys are assembled, they can be embellished with glitter or sequins or another material, or simply left as they are.
Students will be so proud showing off their thankful turkeys. This would also make a wonderful bulletin board craft! Just think of all the different ways you can personalize them!

Looking for more ways to bring crafts and literacy together?
Make learning the alphabet fun while creating adorable alphabet crafts with our Animal Alphabet Letter Crafts. These are great for your letter of the week units.
Download Your I am Thankful Turkey Printable Below!
If you can’t find a resource that you would LOVE to have for your classroom, Contact me and I would be happy to make it for you.
Click the button below to download. You will immediately be redirected to the freebie.

I hope you have fun with this I am Thankful Turkey Thanksgiving Craft in your classroom!
I am so grateful for turkey! It’s one of my favorite meats and I love to cook it up in different ways. Thanks for sharing this recipe!
I am trying to get this printable, however, when I enter my name and e-mail, I am not receiving the e-mail. Is there any way to have it sent to me? Thanks for all you do!
Hi there Colleen, everything seems to be working with it. Once you fill out your name and email, we’ll send you an email so you can download it. Be sure to check all your folders and your spam, they often hide out in there. Also, school emails sometimes get blocked so you might want to use a private email. Have a great day.
Thanks!