Bust out those scissors! This turkey haircut activity is awesome.

My biggest fear as a mom – you know, aside from anything really morbid – is a kid-done haircut. I literally shutter at the thought of my kids playing beauty shop. That’s probably what makes this turkey haircut activity so ironic: I’m literally bringing parts of my fears to life…

Don’t worry, no kid hair was harmed during or after this activity. If anything, this cutting practice gave my son and me a few minutes to talk about how you NEVER CUT YOUR OWN HAIR. Sorry for shouting. I just really needed to get my point across.

An easy activity to practice cutting

Hands down, this has been my son’s favorite of all the Thanksgiving activities we’ve done this November. Maybe it was because of the scissors…maybe it was because of the slight “breaking the rules” in cutting something’s hair…

Whatever it was, making a turkey haircut activity was a darn good idea.

Kids need to practice their scissor skills

Funny enough, kids are not born knowing how to use scissors and it’s actually not that intuitive of a skill. They need guidance, patience, and lots and lots of practice. It’s important when kids start school that they’ve had loads of cutting practice at home.

They also need a good pair of kid scissors (see some great recommendations here) and a lot of modeling.

Haircut activities are a great way to practice cutting and we love this into a Thanksgiving specific project.

A few steps to get started

Materials:

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• Paper plate
• Scissors
• Tape
• rel=”nofollow”Feathers

This did take me about 3 minutes to set up – pretty steep, I know, considering I love a no-prep activity like nobody’s business but this was worth it.

I started by drawing a turkey face on the plate then flipped it over and started taping on the feathers. I was pretty liberal with my tape and really let it fly. I wanted to make sure they were on there good and wouldn’t fall off while my son was cutting.

It’s turkey haircut activity time!

My son (4 years old) absolutely loved this activity. He worked so hard and so quietly to cut his turkey’s hair into something a bit more presentable. Apparently even paper turkeys need to get a Thanksgiving/Holidays haircut.

Flipping the plate this way and that, twisting it in his hand, and eye-balling his line – my son went into full barber mode cutting this turkey’s hair.

This definitely made a pretty good mess…we tried to keep the feathers near the tray but it didn’t really catch them all. Good thing we have a vacuum cleaner.

Giving a turkey a haircut was the perfect Thanksgiving activity for my preschoolers even if it meant facing my greatest fear: watching my son give a haircut…

Are you game to try this turkey haircut activity?