If a painted handprint turkey is too messy or squirmy an ordeal with your toddler, consider a traced outline of a hand instead this Thanksgiving! This turkey was particularly fun for Veronika to decorate because it doubles as sensory play.

First, I placed her hand flat against a paper plate and traced with pencil. Don’t worry if your outline is wobbly or missing in places; you can always fill in the gaps with an approximation.

After the outline was traced, we colored in the turkey with brown crayon, and then decorated with materials from our craft bin. Veronika loved gluing down dried beans…

…plus pouring extra beans from cup to cup for a while!

Meanwhile, I added a few brightly colored beads on each “feather” and drew a beak and wattle as the finishing touch.

For fun, I traced my own hand for us to decorate as well. Now we had a mommy turkey and a baby turkey!