Thanksgiving is a time for giving thanks. What better way to give thanks than to clearly express gratitude for the blessings within your own home! Even small blessings can be acknowledged with this fun craft.

Mr. Turkey is missing his tail and you can help him get it back. Your children will have fun building Mr. Turkey's missing tail. They will start looking for the good things their brothers and sisters are doing. They will also purposely do kind things on their own accord so, if they come to you announcing that they did something good, reward them with a turkey feather! That's the entire goal of this activity. It reinforces positive behaviors and leaves everyone with a good feeling inside.

Using the printable template, you can make one Thanksgiving turkey for your entire family or post on one each bedroom door.

Instructions:
1. Using white paper, cut out and color the turkey body. Hang it someplace prominent, like a refrigerator or door.
2. Cut out two dozen feathers. (To add color to your decoration, cut the feathers out of colored paper if you have it, or let the children color each feather as they are used.)
3. Store the feathers in a jar along with a pen for writing and a roll of tape. Make sure the jar is accessible to small children.

Building your Thanksgiving turkey: When you notice a family member being kind, helpful or making a correct decision, write their name on a feather along with a brief description of the good deed they did. Tape the feather behind the turkey's body. As the month goes on, you may have to cut more feathers while you watch the plummage of good deeds grow. (If you decide to do individual turkeys on each bedroom door, tape Johnny's feather on his own personal turkey.)

On Thanksgiving Day spend time together as a family reading the good deeds outloud and talking about the blessings you have within your own family.

Note to parents: Whether you only do one family turkey or post individual turkeys on everyone's bedroom door, try to keep the feather numbers even among your children. Make sure Johnny has as many feathers bearing his name and good deeds as everybody else.

There are three ways you can print off this template:
1. Copy this graphic into a new document on your computer and print it from there.
2. Go to the Photobucket.com link at the bottom of this article and print from there. Be aware they do charge to print.
3. Send me an e-mail and I will forward the template to you as an attachment.



Here is a fun Thanksgiving craft that encourages thankfulness.
"Thankful Mr. Turkey"