365 Days With Kiddos - #10 - Pinecone Turkey Tutorial for Thanksgiving (Which is on October 11th here in Canada)

Yes, here in Canada we will celebrate Thanksgiving on Monday, October 11th. I grew up in Minnesota where, like the rest of the US, Thanksgiving is celebrate the last Thursday in November. Canadian Thanksgiving coincides with the US Columbus Day (A holiday I have never liked since Columbus "discovered" a place that was already there and, ask the natives, had already been found). Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays (the other is Valentine's Day) and I get to celebrate it twice! It is not the turkey part of the turkey dinner that I enjoy, since I am a vegetarian, it IS the being together with friends and family and being grateful for that we have. It just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. It is a welcome holiday that doesn't focus on gifts but on appreciating and reflecting on that which we already have.

This week, I taught a Thanksgiving themed craft at the Banff Elementary's After School Club. When I got the call to come in I knew exactly what I would teach. This past spring I collected a bunch of pinecones while we were on a trip to Kelowna, British Columbia. This is important to note, since I live in Banff National Park and I am not allowed to go out and collect pinecones in my own backyard. I knew I would use them in some kind of craft and when I opened an old copy of Chirp Magazine I knew right away what I would do. Make pinecone turkeys. Now, their turkey was very "appropriate" with red, orange, & brown feathers, and a walnut in the shell for the head. I decided to revamp this because I wanted our turkeys to be colorful and because there are no nuts allowed in the school. Quin & I made three little guys at home, including the two above, as examples for the kids at school.

The project was a big hit with the 13 kids who were at the After School Club, most of whom were 6-8 years of age. Six of them, five boys and one girl, chose to make two, and two boys chose to make THREE!

Pinecone Turkeys
by Tiffany Teske

Materials
- Pinecone
- Stone or pompom for the head
- Pipe cleaners for the feet and wattle
- Two googly eyes
- Feathers
- Craft glue

Directions

1) Glue your googly eyes on the head (here it is a stone but in class we used pompoms since they will stick to your pinecone faster than a stone). Cut a small piece of pipe cleaner for a waddle and glue it on. Glue the head to the pinecone.

2) Cut two small pieces of pipecleaner and shape them into feet with an "ankle" that can be covered with glue and stuck up into the bottom of the pinecone. Since some of pinecones won't sit well on their own these feet can be used to keep the pinecone in a standing position. If you wish you can glue feathers onto the feet.

3) Glue the feathers into the back end of the pinecone. If you want to add some sparkle, you can first put glue on the ends of the top of each feather and then wipe it across a plate with glitter on it or sprinkle the glitter on.

Tada! You and your kiddos are now ready to celebrate Thanksgiving...