We often associate colored eggs with Easter. But with the emphasis today on Cage Free Chickens, we’ve not only got greater humanity – we’ve got eggs the color of turkeys. They make great decorations for the Thanksgiving table or sideboard. Farmers setting their chickens free is wonderful news. In this fun Thanksgiving craft, children can see how the farmer’s actions are a lot like how Jesus sets us free from the cages of sin!
Thanksgiving Craft: Thanksgiving Colored Eggs
Materials
- Brown cage free eggs, hard boiled, enough for everyone in the class to have one or two
- Marker pens
- Craft store feathers (optional)
- Orange and yellow felt
- Hole punch
- Green and orange construction paper, two sheets of each
- Scissors
- Stick glue
- Staple
Preparation
1. Hard boil eggs the night before and refrigerate.
2. Using the orange and yellow felt, create tiny beaks and eyes for the turkey faces that will be on the eggs.
a. The beak will be a tiny, upside-down orange triangle. Cut them out with scissors.
b. The eyes will be round yellow circles with a black dot in the middle. Use a hold punch to make them out of the yellow felt.
3. Put all in a Ziploc bag.
4. Cut Green construction paper into strips ½-inch thick. You are going to staple each into a ring that the little egg turkey can fit in. So you might want to practice rolling the strip up and stapling it at the right size such that the turkey fits and stands up.
5. If you don’t get craft store features, make tiny feathers out of the brown and green construction paper, four for each student. Cut out the shape of a tiny feather then make little cuts on a slant and spread them so that the construction paper has the look of a feather.
Instructions
1. Have students design faces on their egg turkey. First they should apply the orange beak nose and eyes. Then they can add their black dot to each eye.
2. They can draw on little smiles below the nose, then add eye brows and wavy lines down near the “chin” to be the gobbler.
3. The can add feathers to the top, in a pile, but with some facing opposite directions. They can fill in other feathers by drawing them on.
4. Finally, they should put stick glue on their 1-inch strips, all along the edge. This will not only help hold the base together, but when they stick the egg in, it will stick.
5. Reinforce the stand with a staple before sticking the egg in.
Conclusion
It used to be that farmers were not thinking about the chickens at all. Chickens had to spend their entire lives in a little cage that was no bigger than a foot tall and a foot wide. They had to walk on wires if they walked at all, and they were very sad.
But you know what? In a way, our lives are like that before we give our lives to Jesus. Does anyone know how that is? That our lives resemble a tiny cage? We didn’t have a friend who could guide us and lead us. We weren’t able to get free from our sins by ourselves. We were just stuck with them. We were like cripples. But Jesus set us free so that we can walk tall spiritually and not be caged in by mankind’s sinful nature.
So today, we can be thankful for God’s love. It is so great that he even cares about the chickens! He set them free! How much more so are we set free?
But you know what? In a way, our lives are like that before we give our lives to Jesus. Does anyone know how that is? That our lives resemble a tiny cage? We didn’t have a friend who could guide us and lead us. We weren’t able to get free from our sins by ourselves. We were just stuck with them. We were like cripples. But Jesus set us free so that we can walk tall spiritually and not be caged in by mankind’s sinful nature.
So today, we can be thankful for God’s love. It is so great that he even cares about the chickens! He set them free! How much more so are we set free?
Will you be using this fun Thanksgiving craft with your kids? Be sure to tell us how it goes! And don’t forget to Become aFan on Facebook and Follow Us on Twitter!