Kids will have a blast decorating for Thanksgiving with these adorable Pine Cone Turkeys! 

There are so many ways to make this classic Thanksgiving craft. I’ve seen pine cone turkeys with construction paper feathers, felt feathers, and even real feathers from the craft store. 

For our version of the pine cone turkey, we decided to go with artistic hand-colored feathers. You can either make your own feathers (we made ours with card stock) or print the feather template at the bottom of this post. The printable version has a page full of feathers to color and cut out.

I love the fact that kids can design their feathers however they want! Each turkey will turn out unique.

Pine Cone Turkeys

Supplies Needed for Pine Cone Turkeys:

  • Pine cones – make sure they are clean and dry
  • Brown, orange, and red felt
  • Googly eyes
  • White card stock
  • Colored pencils
  • Hot glue gun
  • Either draw your own feathers, or print the template at the bottom of the post.
pine cone turkeys

We discovered that they key to cute pine cone turkeys is to make sure that the head sticks straight up from the front of the pine cone. Many versions of this project have the head too low.

Cut out a head, beak, and wattle (the red thing that hangs down on turkeys).

We used a double layer of felt for the head so that it would have enough stiffness to stand up.

Glue the two head shapes together with hot glue. Then glue on the googly eyes, beak, and wattle.

Glue the head to the pine cone scales with hot glue or Tacky Glue. Then attach the feathers with glue. We ended up using 7 feathers per turkey.

pine cone turkeys Thanksgiving craft

The finished turkeys are SO cute! Use them in a table centerpiece, or put them on the fireplace mantle.

Pine cone turkeys Thanksgiving craft

Make the feathers solid colors, or color them in a pattern. We found that the turkeys look the best when you choose a color palette of 4-5 coordinating colors.

But younger kids will probably just go crazy with lots of colors, and that’s totally fine too!

Ready to print your feather template? Click the link below. The file will open, and you can print from there.

CLICK HERE: Turkey Feather Template

Need more Thanksgiving craft ideas?

You’ll also want to check out our Wood Slice Turkeys. This is a great option if you don’t have pine cones!

Make this beautiful Thankful Tree with your family. Start with a basic picture frame and some mat board.

Younger kids will enjoy making these Paper Roll Turkeys!

2 Comments

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  1. Sara Oct 31, 2013

    Do you have the pattern you used for the head that you could post?

    Reply
  2. Karen Nov 6, 2022

    Is there another option for a hot glue gun?

    Reply

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