Thanksgiving Turkey Cards

I don't have any pictures of these because we just mailed them to grandparents and cousins and I forgot to take a picture ahead of time. You can do this in different ways. Here are two options:

1. If you are brave: Use finger paint. Have your child dip his hand in paint and then put it on whatever you are using for your card. When it drys, draw eyes on the thumb or use small googly eyes. Use feathers you can buy at Wal-Mart or a craft store. Let them use the glue sticks to make the card sticky. I cut the feathers for Andrew and he stuck them on the sticky parts of the card where he had placed the glue. Then use a sentence stem - "I am grateful for _____________". If the child is preschool age, they may be ready to write the word in themselves. If not, you write what they tell you. Andrew didn't totally get it. I had to help him with that part. (Also - a side note - the feathers came off pretty easily, but most of them stuck and they only have to make it through the mail and through Thanksgiving.)

2. If you are not feeling brave (I wasn't) trace their hand and follow the same steps as #1, only let them color with crayons, pencils, or markers to add color.

We made one for each set of grandparents (there are three sets) and one for his cousins that live in North Carolina. He helped me put the cards in envelopes as well as a picture of himself. He also "helped" me address the envelopes - I had to be careful not to get too much scribbling on the envelope so the address could be read, and we went to the UPS store and mailed them together. He got a huge kick out of it.

The most important thing to remember - It doesn't matter if the feathers are in the right place - they could be on the turkey's feet or the sky for all I care. They are toddlers and preschoolers and their version of art and how things should look is different from ours! Just have fun with it. The younger they are, the more help they will need and the less they will use their own creativity.