Thanksgiving Candy Turkeys

Sweet Pea is 5 years old.

From:   A couple of years ago, we spent Thanksgiving at Grandma’s house, and she showed us how to make these adorable candy turkeys.   I thought they were so cute!

Material: 

• Reese’s Miniature Peanut Butter Cups.  (You will need 1 for each turkey.)
• Ferrero Rocher chocolate candy.   (You will need 1 for each turkey.)
• Glue.
• Red pipe cleaners.  (Each pipe cleaner will make about 5 turkey “heads”.)
• Scissors.
• Cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.  (Optional, but makes it easier to move the turkeys while the glue dries.)

Procedure:

• Have your tot turn all of the Reese’s Miniature Peanut Butter Cups upside down.

• Pick up one of the Ferrero Rocher candies and show your tot how to gently fold the brown paper cup backwards to make the tail feathers.  (The cup already comes stuck to the candy with a bit of glue, so it will stay by itself once it is turned inside out.)

• Let your tot put a dime size circle of glue on the bottom of a peanut butter cup.

• Show your tot how to place the Ferrero Rocher candy on the peanut butter cup and press them together.  

• Carefully move the turkey to the cookie sheet or an out of the way location.
• Have your tot create the rest of the turkey bodies with the remaining candy.
• Allow the turkey bodies to dry for several hours or overnight.
• Cut the pipe cleaners into 1.5 inch pieces. 
• Curl one end of each pipe cleaner into a small circle and bend the rest of it so it will fit against the turkey body.

• Show your tot how to apply glue to the small oval label on the front of the Ferrero Rocher candy.

•  Demonstrate firmly pressing one of the bent pipe cleaners to the glue.

• Set the completed turkey back on the jelly roll pan.
• Invite your tot to finish adding the rest of the pipe cleaner “heads” to the turkey bodies.

• Allow the turkeys to dry for several hours or overnight.

Observations: Sweet Pea is always excited to see me bring out a bag of candy, and this activity was no exception!   We, of course, had to sample both a Ferrero Rocher and a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup while we were creating our turkeys.

This is a pretty fun little craft, but Sweet Pea thought the best part was playing pretend with the little “turkeys”.     She liked running them around the table and having them gobble at each other.    🙂

This is a very easy craft that makes an adorable Thanksgiving decoration.   We put a candy turkey on each of the plates when we set our table for Thanksgiving and they were extremely popular with the guests.  🙂

While younger tots can help make these, I would mostly recommend this craft for older preschoolers and up since it takes some strength to squeeze the glue out of the bottle and a steady hand to stick the pieces together,

Notes from the Trenches:  Be gentle when folding the brown paper cup away from the gold covered candy.   The foil is delicate and tears easily.  (“Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to eat that one!”)

An older tot might be able to cut the pipe cleaner on her own, but it was too difficult for Sweet Pea.  She asked me to finish after she had only cut a couple of them.

Attaching the pipe cleaner “heads” to the candy “bodies” can be a bit messy for little fingers.  Sweet Pea was not thrilled about her sticky hands.

 Rating: 2 Stars * (Fun, Easy)