Today I dragged myself to the craft store to buy feathers, pipe cleaners and google eyes. It was worth the trip. I try to design most of the 
projects I post with stuff I already have in the house, but I made an exception for this project, since it sounded like so much fun. The leftovers will go straight into my craft box to be used for another project on another rainy day.
Pine cone turkeys
My mother-in-law suggested making pine cone turkeys, so I thought we'd give it a shot. If you don't have pine cones lying around the house, take your kids on a walk to find some, or just buy some. I have to admit that I had to buy some at Michael's since it is wet outside and I wanted to do the project today. They only had cinnamon scent-drenched cones, which are a little strong, but the kids didn't mind.
Pipe cleaners
I found some normal pipe cleaners and some sort of bumpy-looking ones that we cut up to use as turkey heads. After we cut the pipe cleaner "head", we twisted part of a normal pipe cleaner around it to affix it to the pine cone by wrapping it completely around it. We made legs and feet from pipe cleaners too. They don't support the weight of the pine cone very well, but look cute.
Feathers and google eyes
Then, the kids just stuck feathers into the pine cones to make turkey tails. You can have your children use glue, if you want the feathers to stay put, by dabbing a little glue on the end of the feathers before you poke them into the pine cone. It works pretty well just to stick them in too. Finally, glue some eyes on. I bought google eyes that have adhesive already on them- what a great invention!
As usual, the project evolved into making crazy pipe cleaner/feather creatures once the turkeys were complete. The kids were busy for an hour, needed very little help and the turkeys are adorable. Good times.
More Creative Mama activities for kids of all ages:
Make a science notebook
Make magazine beads
Make green slime for Halloween or beyond
Make fizzy balloons
Stay connected
Follow RealMomsGuide on Twitter, friend RealMomsGuide on Facebook and for more science recipes for kids, follow Creative Mama on Twitter.
About the author: Creative Mama is a Real Mom here on RealMomsGuide and contributed this article. She has her own Creative Mama blog where she includes fun, easy science experiments for kids of all ages.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
