This thank you turkey box is a fun and simple activity for the whole family to show their gratitude over Thanksgiving.
I am very important to me every year, finding ways to help encourage my children to be grateful every Thanksgiving. In the past, we’ve created a thank you tree, easy thank you turkey puppets, and a year we’ve created this fun thank you write reminder. The “Give Thanks”-inspired idea we came up with to celebrate blessings this year is a thank you turkey box.
The turkey box is made from a small box of tissues so that every day in November we can write down something we are grateful for and feed the turkey. On Thanksgiving, while we’re all together as a family, we’ll take all the papers out and read them together.
There are many different ways in which you can customize the activity. You can choose it for a class and have each student fill out a prompt to write about what they are grateful for.
You can also include it as an activity for the extended family Thanksgiving dinner and ask family members to write down the one thing they are most grateful for. The box can then be passed across the table for family members to read their card and then place it inside the turkey. Any way you use it, it is sure to bring some happy cheer to your home this year.
I updated the original manual to make it simpler and included a craft template. There are new photos, text, and how-to videos.
How to make a grateful turkey box
We’ve created a printable turkey template (linked below in the supplies list) to make creating your own turkey box super simple for preschoolers and young children. Grab your gear to make your turkey and get ready for a month full of gratitude.
Read our simple step-by-step instructions below to learn how to make your own thank you box out of a tissue box. We also have a video tutorial inside this post that you can watch before you get started.
Supplies needed to make your turkey box:
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empty square tissue box
brown paint
sponge paint brush
brown, yellow, red and orange cardstock
googly eyes
Glue dots (optional) -Can also use tape or hot glue gun
scissors
high strength glue
A Guide to This Thanksgiving Activity
1. Spread a liner or tissue paper to protect your surface. Pour some brown acrylic paint on a painting palette or paper plate.
Using a sponge paintbrush, paint a small empty tissue box with your paint. Set it aside to dry completely. The box may need a second coat of paint depending on the color and style of your box.
2. Download and print the printable turkey template. Cut the pieces and use them as templates to trace and cut each piece on colored cardboard. We print feather pages from the template directly on colored cardboard.
3. Once your painted tissue box is completely dry, add tempered glue to the back of the turkey body and stick it to the front of the box. Then, glue the turkey feathers and beak onto the turkey. Finally stick two little googly eyes on your turkey.
4. Place a Glue Dot on the bottom of each feather. Attach them to the back of the tissue box to create turkey feathers. If glue dots are not available, you can attach the feathers with a gun or hot tape. An acacia will probably also work.
We used paint coated paper to create our colorful feathers. You can imagine how much joy the splash painting brings to children. See how the painted feathers look in the image below.
