Felt Thankfullness Turkey (no-sew)

*Have a holly, jolly Christmas...* Oh, sorry.  I'm one of those straight-to-Christmas-skip-past-Thanksgiving types.  And I'm married to a man who loves Thanksgiving more than any other holiday.  Out of respect for him, I don't decorate for Christmas before December... but I'll admit, I don't do a lot for Thanksgiving either.  This year I thought I should make a little more effort to celebrate Thanksgiving for my husband but also to use the opportunity to teach my children about being thankful and understanding how blessed they (we) are.

So I came up with this interactive piece of decor that my 4 year old is OBSESSED with.  It's been a definite hit in our home and I bet it will be one in yours too!

Every day we grab a felt feather from the pocket and my son tells me something he is thankful for that day.  Then we write it on the feather and stick it up!  Felt naturally sticks to felt so you can rearrange the feathers every day and re-use this DIY every year (just cut new feathers to write on).  What an adorable reminder of how blessed we are and a fun way to get the kiddos involved!


It's very easy to make and the thing that took the most time was cutting out the letters by hand (which still wasn't very long)  


Here's what you'll need:

- Felt (for the large background piece, purchase "by-the-yard" felt, for the feathers and turkey you can do by-the-yard or the smaller pre-cut sheets)

- Hot Glue Gun

- Scissors

- Googly Eyes

- Sharpie Marker

  


For the turkey, I traced two bowls/containers, one larger than the other, slightly overlapped.  Then I cut it out for his body shape.  Next, just cut a nose and snood (that's what the red dangly thing is called. I just looked it up!) and attach them and two google eyes with hot glue. The turkey itself will not be glued on so that you can pick it up and put feathers under it every day.

For the large piece, just cut a square or rectangle.  Since it is felt you don't need to finish the edges in any way.  I later added a strip across the bottom to hold our extra feathers but if I had thought of this first I could have just made my big piece extra long and folded it up.  Both ways are fine.  If you choose to add a separate piece, hot glue along the 3 edges, leaving the top open.  I also glued two vertical lines to create "pockets" which helps to keep it from sagging open.

Next, cut out your letters and hot glue them on.  MAKE SURE you lay your letters out first (before gluing) or you'll likely run out of room!

Lastly (or whenever you want. Order doesn't really matter a lot) cut out your feathers.  I made 22 feathers to last us up until Thanksgiving day (because after that, it's ALL CHRISTMAS y'all!) but you could also do the entire month of November and cut out 30 feathers instead.

How pretty is that turkey with all those feathers on it?!  I can't wait to see what things my son is "thankful" for.  So far he's come up with:

- "my house"
- "matching outfits" (him and his sister have some matching clothes and so do me and him)
- "applesauce"
- "baby chicks, cows & ducks"
- "my birthday"
- "books"
- "Elizabeth"
- "Highlights Magazine" (which I totally spelled wrong on the feather.  Left out an "H". oops!)

My 4 year old LOVES this and as soon as he wakes up in the morning he runs over and goes "oh, we forgot to do this!"  We've only been awake for 10 minutes but okay buddy.


I love seeing what he comes up with every day.   Some are funny and I wonder where that came from and others are just plain sweet.  Either way, it opens up the conversation about "thankfulness" and helps all of us learn to appreciate all the blessings we really have.