At a Glance
This printable scarecrow turkey disguise craft has your preschool, kindergarten and other children cutting out and gluing them together the pieces to hide a turkey under a straw hat and a patched-up shirt. Part of our turkey in disguise series, it builds scissor skills, fine motor control and visual-spatial reasoning, with color and black-and-white templates included.
Nothing to see here. Just a regular old scarecrow standing in a regular old field, minding his own business, definitely not a turkey!
With this scarecrow turkey disguise craft, your little learners will need to help hide him by cutting out and glueing the pieces together. If your kiddos enjoyed making our build a scarecrow craft, this one gives the scarecrow a rather sneaky new look!
Time to get that turkey out into the field!
And you can browse all the other printable cut and paste crafts here.
What Skills Can Your Children Learn And Practice?
When making this sneaky bird, your children will have the chance to practice and develop some skills such as:
- Cutting Skills – if you feel they’re ready, you can let them have a go at cutting out the pieces all by themselves – they’ll need to be careful and have good scissor control if they want to cut out the pieces neatly
- Bilateral Coordination – Cutting well means one hand turns and steadies the paper while the other hand does the snipping.
- Fine Motor Control and Pincer Grasp – Picking up small pieces like the fee, spreading glue and pressing everything flat all strengthen the small muscles in the fingers and hands.
- Hand-Eye Coordination – Children need to watch carefully and guide their hands to line up the pieces where they want them.
- Visual-Spatial Reasoning – Working out which pieces go behind and which go on top is like a little puzzle.
- Pencil Control – The black-and-white template lets children practice pencil control and build hand strength through coloring.
- Creativity and Language – Talking about disguises, costumes and why this turkey might want to hide opens up some imaginative conversation and new vocabulary.
This simple craft will also give them a chance to practice their concentration and perseverance skills as they may find it tricky to place the pieces exactly where they want them to go.
How To Prepare This Simple Turkey Disguise Craft
First you’re going to want to download the scarecrow turkey disguise templates by clicking on the download button at the bottom of the page – I’ve made a color and a black and white version.
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Other materials you’ll need:
- Safety scissors
- Card stock or Craft paper
- Some good glue
- Some coloring pencils or pens or other artsy materials
Once you’ve downloaded the templates, you’ll need to print them off onto paper or card.
Then, you can cut them out. Or if you’d like your children to get some cutting practice, you can let them have a go.
Then you can stick all the pieces together to make the turkey.
It can be really nice to let your kids have a bit of free rein here and see if they can work it out – kind of like a puzzle.
If they’re struggling, the order I’d do it in is:
- Stick the hat to the head
- Stick the head on to the body
- Stick the straw on the wings
- Stick the wings on to the body
- Stick all of that onto the tail feathers
- Stick the legs on (or draw if they are a bit fiddly)
(I expect you could have worked that out but I do like to be thorough…)
The finished one should look something like this:
What a disguise!!
If you want to, you could always laminate the pieces before putting them together and use them as a puzzle. That way, the different parts would be kept nice and they can use them again and again and you could mix and match some costumes.
After that you’re all done!
Let your kids practice their cutting and sticking skills in a simple and fun way!
But Wait… There’s Also A Black And White Turkey Disguise Template!
I’ve also made a black and white version which would be an awesome way for your little ones to practice their coloring skills and personalize their turkey in their own way!
So why not crack out the pens, crayons, paints or collage (or all of them if you’re feeling adventurous) and let your kids get creative!
Some Other Ways You Could Use This
Turkey Disguise
Activity
There’s plenty more you can do with this sneaky little turkey…
Make a Scarecrow Turkey Stick Puppet
Tape a craft stick to the back of the finished turkey and you’ve got a puppet! A quick puppet show can also be a lovely way to get your quieter kiddos talking.
Build Him a Field to Stand In
Glue the finished turkey onto a bigger sheet and let your little learners create the scene around him. They could use collage materials here to add some texture.
Play Scarecrow and Crows
Ok this one doesn’t use the craft, but is a fun little brain break if they start to get a bit restless. Choose one child to be the scarecrow standing in the middle of the room. Everyone else is a crow, flapping about and trying to sneak past. When the scarecrow turns around, the crows have to freeze. Anyone caught moving sits out or joins the scarecrow.
Add Some Real Straw
Set out a tray of dried grass, shredded paper or actual straw and let children add some real texture to their scarecrow’s hat and sleeves. Picking up fine strands and gluing them into place can be quite tricky for those little fingers.
Count the Patches
The scarecrow’s shirt is covered in patches and buttons, so put them to work. Count the patches together, touching each one for one-to-one correspondence practice, then count the buttons and ask which there are more of. Older kiddos can draw more patches on the black-and-white version and figure out the new total.
Start a Turkey in Disguise Display
If you’re making these as a group, put all the finished turkeys up together with the question “Can you spot the turkey?” above them. It makes a great anchor chart style display, and children can add a labeled flap or speech bubble for each disguise. Our witch turkey disguise craft is the other one in the series so far, and there are more on the way.
Celebrate National Farmer’s Day
This craft is also a natural fit for National Farmer’s Day on October 12, a day for thanking the farmers who grow our food, timed to land near the end of harvest season. It’s a lovely chance to talk about where our food comes from and what a scarecrow is really for. You’ll find it and plenty more dates worth marking on our Special Day Calendar.
However you use this scarecrow turkey disguise craft, I hope you and your little ones like it! And you can browse all our other printable cut and paste crafts here.
Enjoy and let’s nurture those neurons!
