Last year, we began an annual family tradition of making turkey t-shirts for Thanksgiving. I of course, found Chipmunk’s shirt adorable. My husband asked if we were becoming “one of those families”. What’s that supposed to mean anyway??My daughter fell instantly in love with the “chicken shirt” (as she called it) and asked to wear it almost every day (we washed that shirt a lot!) Needless to say, I’m excited to make the shirts again and wanted to share the super easy process with you! Let’s get started!
Last year’s turkey shirt
What You Need:
- An adorable child’s little hand
- Non-washable paint (beware!)
- Paper Plate
- Paint brush
- White T-shirt (on sale this week at A.C. Moore for $2.99)
- Google eye (optional)
- Sharpie (black and orange)
- Hot glue gun (optional)
What You Do:
We started with white shirts we already owned, but many people recommend washing your shirt first. Lay the shirt out as flat as you can on the table, with some kind of newspaper or cardboard in between the front and the back (I always forget this part!).
Pour some paints (red, orange, yellow, brown) onto a paper plate. I used acrylic paint, but I should mention that I don’t know anything about paint! It seemed to work fine for us last year, so we’ll stick with it. Of course, I ran out of paper plates, so I had to use a paper towel on a regular plate. Not the most effective method!!
Using the brush, paint your child’s palm brown and each finger a different color.
Have them press firmly onto the t-shirt. You can do one or two turkeys.
One of our day care kids has SUPER ticklish hands. He kept closing his hand, so this turkey’s colors were a little more mixed up! We stuck with only one turkey for him! 🙂
Once the paint is dry (usually 1 hour at most), hot glue a googly eye onto his head.
You can also draw little embellishments like feet, beak (with the orange Sharpie), or extra hair/feathers.
Wait another hour or so for the shirts to fully dry and then wear with pride!
Check out some of these Turkey projects too!
- Thanksgiving Math and Literacy Packet ($5)
- Turkey Site Words by Mom with a Lesson Plan
- Run! Turkey! Run! Story Sequencing by Aloha Kindergarten
- Coffee Filter Turkeys by Room 36 (Kindergarten)
About the Author:
Lindsey Whitney is a blogger over at Growing Kids Ministry. A blog designed to help parents, teachers, and Children’s Ministry workers who want to help the kids they love grow in their faith. You can connect with her via twitter or on facebook.