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Home / Early Learning / Preschool Arts and Crafts / How to Easily Make Turkey Tracks Turkey Art with Kids

How to Easily Make Turkey Tracks Turkey Art with Kids

Shared by Mary Catherine 5 Comments

Turkey tracks are a silly and fun way to make turkey art with kids! Perfect for your Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers, as well as art for a farm theme. Easy to set up and fun!

Pipe cleaner turkey 'feet' stamping on paper with text that reads turkey art with turkey tracks

Related: Turkey Activities

This is one of those activities that happened on-the-fly in preschool, as a result of a simple conversation.

It’s such fun when things like that happen, as the kiddos get very excited about the entire art process! Even better, this turkey art is easy-peasy to set up and allows for a variety of learning opportunities.

Are you following my Thanksgiving for Kids Pinterest board?

Turkey art with turkey tracks

Related: Fall Art Projects for Preschoolers

Table of Contents

  • Easy Thanksgiving Turkey Art with Kids
    • Materials We Used to Make the Turkey Art
    • How to Make the Turkey Tracks
    • See the Turkey Tracks Art in Action
  • Other Learning Possibilities with Turkey Art
  • Simplify Your Thanksgiving Planning
  • Get Your Free Printable

Easy Thanksgiving Turkey Art with Kids

During our morning welcome and sign-in time, a few children and I were chatting about a turkey Thanksgiving emergent reader we’d made.

This led to one of the kiddos asking why the turkeys in the book didn’t look scared, “because if I was a turkey, I’d be scared!”

I asked what she’d do if she was a turkey, and she told me she’d run and hide away so she wouldn’t be eaten for Thanksgiving dinner.

This led to a lively discussion about places to hide and what turkey footprints look like. Once everyone had their say, and we’d confirmed what turkey footprints look like, we decided to make silly turkey tracks art!

Materials We Used to Make the Turkey Art

I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Thin orange pipe cleaners (thicker pipe cleaners work well too)
Orange tempera paint
Brown tempera paint
Add yellow tempera paint if desired, too
White construction paper

Turkey foot made with an orange pipe cleaner in preparation to make turkey tracks art

Related: How to Make a Turkey Sensory Bottle

How to Make the Turkey Tracks

I bent the pipe cleaners to look like turkey feet.

I made three u-shapes in the middle of the pipe cleaner, then pressed them together. Then I brought both ends together, twisted them up, and bent it at a ninety-degree angle.

Writing it out makes it sound more difficult than it was!

Homemade turkey feet used to make turkey tracks turkey art

Related: Thanksgiving Printable Emergent Reader

Once I had a few sets of “feet”, we grabbed orange and brown paint. The children pressed the feet into the paint, then had them walk all over construction paper.

Preschooler making turkey tracks as part of Thanksgiving turkey art

Some of the children were very methodical about it, making sure to use two feet and “walking” them across the paper.

Others had fun bouncing the turkey feet pipe cleaners all over the paper.

Tons of turkey tracks on this preschool turkey art paper

Once the turkey track paintings were done, I wrote each child’s contribution on their paper.

Some of the turkeys hid in the forest, up a tree, or behind a bush. Others hid in the classroom, while one decided to hide in a volcano (we had a fun discussion about that one, let me tell you)!

Pro Tip: Add a straw to stabilize the turkey “leg” and make it easier for painting!

Stamping turkey tracks on free printable class book about turkey art

Related: Corn Mosaic Thanksgiving Art

See the Turkey Tracks Art in Action

Here’s a quick video to show you how to make the turkey art, and take a look at the printable you can use to make all the kids’ artwork into a class book:

Other Learning Possibilities with Turkey Art

There really are a lot of ways to take this activity and make something a little different with it. For us, we focused on literacy, fine motor skills, and fun with creativity.

Turkey tracks turkey art on free printable class book page

Here are a few other ideas:

  • This turkey art activity is a great extension of the book Run, Turkey, Run! The children’s artwork could be bound and turned into a class version of that book. Be sure to grab your free printable if you want to do this!
  • The kids could use the turkey tracks to make patterns with different colors of paint.
  • Turkey track letters and/or names would be awesome!
  • Bring out some fall calendar numbers and the kiddos can make the appropriate amount of turkey tracks based on that.

Now that I’ve shared our silly and fun turkey art, what do you think? How would your kids create? Where would their turkeys hide?

Simplify Your Thanksgiving Planning

Save time planning with resources from Preschool Teacher 101. You’ll find a variety of preschool lesson plans, early math and STEM activities, and early literacy ideas. Bonus – they’re all done for you!

Click on the pictures below for some products you might like. Be sure to look into the membership options for even more savings.

Ten little turkeys song pack and book set for preschool and kindergarten cover image.
10 Little Turkeys
Preschool farm dramatic play cover
Farm Dramatic Play
Cover of turkey feather roll and color math games.
Turkey Roll and Color Games

Get Your Free Printable

The turkey tracks turkey art free printable is available to members of Fun-A-Day’s free email community. If you’re already a member, enter your email in the form below to get the printable sent to your inbox.

Not a member? No worries! Enter your information in the form below to join the email community. You’ll get the printable sent to your email inbox as a welcome gift.

You can also access the form in a new tab if you’d prefer.

Collage of turkey tracks art with text that reads turkey tracks preschool turkey art

Originally published November 21, 2015. Updated with new pictures and a free printable.

How to make turkey art with turkey tracks

Filed Under: Preschool Arts and Crafts Tagged With: Fall, Free Printable, Thanksgiving, turkey

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  1. Nicole says

    November 5, 2016 at 8:09 am

    This is such a fun idea!! I cannot wait to set this up for my preschoolers next week! 🙂

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      November 5, 2016 at 11:20 am

      Thanks so much, Nicole! We had a blast with it, especially when the kids made up stories to go with the turkey tracks.

      Reply
  2. N. Arm says

    November 21, 2016 at 12:57 pm

    Such a fun idea! We shared it on our Facebook Girls Love STEAM – Thanksgiving Days of STEAM – Day 4 Art. Have a great holiday!

    Reply
    • Mary Catherine says

      November 22, 2016 at 4:07 pm

      Thanks so much! You, too. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Mary Catherine says

    November 19, 2019 at 8:32 pm

    Hi Phaelin! There’s a large teal/blue button near the very bottom of the post – above the final picture. Click on that, enter your information, and get the printable sent to your email. 🙂

    Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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