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Make a printable turkey basket which has been designed to look like a realistic turkey.
For those of you living in the USA this easy turkey craft is just in time for Thanksgiving. It also makes a fun farm animal craft at any time of year.
You could fill your finished turkey basket with sweets or candies and give it to someone special as a gift, or keep it as a festive decoration for yourself.
Turkey crafts are everywhere right now, and they all have a typical “cartoon turkey” look to them. Do you know what I mean?
The average, stylised turkey is nut-brown in colour with a yellow beak, a red dangly piece underneath it’s beak and a fan-shaped tail often depicted in autumn harvest colours.
They are cute for sure, but somewhere along the line the picture of a stereotypical turkey has strayed far from the real deal.
Just to remind you, this is what an actual turkey looks like…
This handsome bird is a little bit different to the cartoon version, isn’t he?
While we’re at it, I’ve dug up a few interesting turkey facts so you can talk about them with the kids while you’re crafting. These birds aren’t as silly as you might think they are!
Fascinating turkey facts:
- Turkeys have up to 20 distinct vocalisations, but only the male can “gobble”
- Each turkey has a unique voice, which is how they recognise each other
- Turkeys are intelligent birds and are highly social
- Baby turkeys are called poults
- They are highly sensitive animals and have even been known to have heart attacks when startled by loud noises
- Turkeys actually have two stomachs
- The piece of fleshy skin which hangs over the male turkey’s beak is called a “snood”
- The exposed skin around it’s neck is called a “wattle”
- Both the snood and the head of the turkey can change colour from blue to red with the turkey’s level of excitement
- Male turkeys puff up their feathers, fan out their tail and strut around gobbling to attract females
- Wild turkeys sleep roosting in trees and can fly up to 55 mph (88km/h), but domestic turkeys are unable to fly at all
Let’s get started on the turkey craft…
You will need:
- The printable turkey basket template, available in both our printables shop and our TPT store
- Card stock is recommended but ordinary paper will also work
- Pencils or markers if using the line art version
- Scissors
- Glue stick
- A cutting mat, ruler and blunt butter knife (or a scoring tool) to score the fold lines with
How to:
- Print the basket and colour in if using the line art version.
- If using card stock, score the fold lines before cutting out. To score you lay a ruler along the fold line and make an indent in the paper with a blunt butter knife or scoring tool if you have one. Scoring isn’t essential but it will give you crisp, clean fold lines and make crafting easier.
- Cut out the shapes.
- Fold and glue the box shape of the basket together.
- Fold the tabs on the wings and fold the head down.
- Glue on the handle, tail, wings and head. Glue the “snood” onto it’s beak.
He’s almost as handsome as the real ones, don’t you think?
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