This turkey dinner craft using newspaper or magazine cutouts is a simple, fun activity you can do with your students this November! Keep reading for all the how-to instructions and ways to use them in your classroom!

Kids just love Thanksgiving time in school! It’s so fun to talk about turkeys and being thankful, and there are so many great crafts to do. This paper plate activity featuring a Thanksgiving dinner uses newspaper or magazine clippings. It’s also a great way to teach the students all about making choices.

Make sure to also check out these other Thanksgiving Activities + Freebies:

• Thanksgiving Dinner Craft
• Thanksgiving Videos
• Free Thankful Turkey Hat
• Fill the Turkey
• Thankful Trees
• Turkey Leg Popcorn Snack
• Turkey Handprint Poem
• Thankful For My Students Note

This activity goes well with these resources:

Making Side Choices

This short and cute video is a fun little intro to your craft! It talks about lots of Thanksgiving sides, and also encourages trying new things! It might help the students choose some newspaper or magazine cutouts for their Thanksgiving dinner craft that they might not have considered before!

How To Make A Turkey Dinner Craft With Newspaper or Magazine Cutouts

Before you do the craft, ask your students to bring in some newspapers, magazines, or grocery store ads. Tell them to be on the lookout for things that look yummy to eat while they scan through them. You can let parents know that there are free grocery store ads in the front of the store, so they won’t need to purchase anything!

What you’ll need:

• Paper plates
• Newspapers
• Magazine
• Grocery store ads
• Glue
• Scissors

Preparations

Some tips for easier prep, because it might be best to get a head start on some of the steps:

• Cut out any food items and leave them in piles.
• If you are going to set the newspapers or magazines out for the students, check to make sure there are not any inappropriate ads. Remove them if so.

Let’s Get Started on the Turkey Dinner Craft

Get your students excited by telling them they can choose whichever foods they want to add to their Thanksgiving dinner plate! You can have a set number or as many as they can fit! See if they can give you reasons for why they picked each item.

Have students arrange and glue down all of their food choices to display on the plate! If you choose to add a writing prompt like this one here, you can ask them to write about what they’re most excited to eat on Thanksgiving.

Show Those Crafts Off

Yay! Your turkey dinner craft is ready! Have your students take turns sharing which food sides they chose and showing off their great work! Display these around the classroom, or send them home to the students’ grownups. Enjoy!

An Easier Way

If you’re looking for an even easier idea, grab this Thanksgiving writing prompt and activity! Students cut out their side choices to glue onto the paper and then write about what they chose. Easy, no big mess to clean up, and fun! Get yours here!

Share how you’re using this craft in the Simply Kinder Teachers Facebook Group or tag #Simplykinder on Instagram!

This post was written by Johanna, an experienced early elementary teacher who loves learning about new teaching ideas for preschool, kindergarten, and first grade!