"Give thanks" turkey magnets

These turkey magnets were a hit with the kids on Wednesday night. They enjoyed helping me put these together for them. Here's a quick tutorial on how to make your own for your family or friends:

It all started with a simple drawing of what I wanted my turkey to look like. Here's my pencil drawing. Disregard the colors, as I ended up changing a couple of them later on.

These are the materials you'll need:

sparkly colored pipe cleaners

craft foam

googly eyes

small magnet

scissors

pencil

fine tip black marker

strong craft glue or glue sticks and glue gun

How to: Using my pictures as your guide, use a pencil to draw out your turkey pieces on craft foam. To give you an idea on measurements, the round body piece is 2 inches in diameter. Cut out two feet and beak from orange foam, his head from dark brown foam, his body from light brown foam and his gobbler from red foam. Then, cut out your pipe cleaner pieces as follows: two pieces of red that are 6 inches long, two pieces of yellow that are 6 inches long and one of each yellow and red that are 4 inches long.

Put your turkey together by gluing on each piece. If using regular glue, let it dry for a while. Hot glue dries fast, but be careful with the kids around. They can still help by passing you each piece and watching you glue it on. To put on the pipe cleaners, fold them over so that the ends touch, then glue them to the back of the turkey body. The kids enjoyed doing this and they even came up with the idea to twist the ends so that it would be easier to glue. 

Once you have your pipe cleaners on, glue on your magnet and let dry. When he's all done, turn him around and write, "Give Thanks" on his body. 

Ideas for using this fun turkey magnet:

Cut out a bunch of turkey pieces and use them in a kids' club like I did for some crafty fun!

Make these with your own kids, nephews, nieces on Thanksgiving. Assign an older sibling or adult to work with them while you get your dinner together.

Give them to some folks at your local nursing home. Include a card and they will be so encouraged!

Use it in your own home to hold your child's drawings and school papers during this season.

Better yet, use it to hold Scripture passages written on 3x5 cards that talk about giving thanks and praising God. You and your family could even write things your thankful for and take turns letting your turkey hold it. You will all be reminded to give thanks each day.

Here's Mieka holding her turkey. She loved it!

Have fun making these cute turkey magnets with the kids in your life!

"In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus 

concerning you." I Thessalonians 5:18