Thankful Turkey Bucket Craft

This Thankful Turkey Bucket is one of our great Thanksgiving crafts for kids to make at home or at school. November is often the time of year we focus on thankfulness and expressing gratitude.

Transforming a small bucket into a turkey doubles as a craft activity and a conversation starter. It’s an excellent way to engage kids in learning about being thankful.

Making these turkeys goes along well with our printable Gratitude Game. They also make a cute fall decoration idea.

Gratitude Turkey Bucket Thanksgiving Craft

To teach kids gratitude, we have to model it and have them practice. While being thankful and grateful is important year round, it is a popular topic during the holidays.

Perhaps because there are more family gatherings and visits with family members we don’t see frequently throughout the year.

Working on thankful turkey buckets is a great family activity.

The kids can help paint buckets and cut out felt pieces for the turkey’s face and feet. You will need to assist younger ones with gluing the pieces to the bucket.

You could create one together that contains gratitude prompts on the craft stick tail feathers.

Example prompts include: favorite thing to do, someone you love, favorite food, etc.

Then when someone pulls a stick out, they answer what they are thankful for and share that with everyone.

Another option is to create turkey buckets for everyone. Each individual’s bucket would contain what they are thankful for on the craft sticks.

For example, my kids’ buckets would have sticks that included video games, their grandparents, and their best friends.

The turkey gratitude buckets provide an opportunity to talk and share. They also make super cute fall decorations or even a table centerpiece.

Thankful Turkey Bucket Craft Supplies:

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• 15 Jumbo Colored Craft Sticks
• Small Metal Bucket
• 2 Googly Eyes
• Crinkle Cut Paper Shred
• Natural Jute Twine (about 10 inches)
• Craft Felt in Yellow, Red, and Orange
• Small Shipping Tag/Gift Tag
• Brown Acrylic Craft Paint
• Black Permanent Marker
• Glue Gun and Glue Sticks
• Pencil
• Scissors

How to Make a Thankful Turkey Bucket:

Paint the outside of the metal bucket with brown acrylic craft paint. Set aside to dry and apply a second coat, if necessary.

While the bucket is drying, prepare the craft sticks and cut out the felt pieces. If you don’t have craft felt, use colored paper or craft foam.

Next, cut out a triangle beak shape from yellow craft felt. 

Cut a wiggly snood shape from red craft felt (snood is the part that hangs over a turkey’s bill and the wattle is the red part on their neck).

Cut two turkey feet shapes from orange craft felt. 

Glue the googly eyes, beak and snood to the bucket. For best results, use a hot glue gun. It 

Then write “I am THANKFUL for…” on a small brown tag with a black marker. Tie the tag to the bucket handle with a 10” length of natural jute twine and tie it with a bow. 

Fill the bucket with crinkled paper shred.

Lay out 15 colored jumbo craft sticks. If you do not have colored craft sticks, you can color plain craft sticks with markers or paint them. 

Write thankful prompts or things you are grateful for on the craft sticks with a pencil, and then trace with a permanent black marker.

Use the thankful prompts listed in the photo above or make up your own based upon what is important to your family.

If making individual buckets, use the prompts to help you create your list of 15 gratitude items.

Place all 15 colored jumbo craft sticks in the Thankful Turkey Bucket using the crinkled paper shred to hold them in place. They become the turkey feathers making it a cute fall decoration!

More Turkey Crafts:

• Coffee Filter Turkey
• Turkey Suncatcher
• Pool Noodle Turkey
• Clay Pot Turkeys
• Turkey Treat Box
• 20+ Easy Turkey Crafts for Kids