Hand Turkey Traced From a Child's Hand Coloring Page

This is the hand turkey every American classroom makes in November, printed as a clean outline instead of traced at the kitchen table. The thumb points left and carries the head, with one round eye, a small triangular beak and a teardrop wattle hanging beside it. The four fingers stand up as four wide tail feathers. Two bird legs drop from the base of the palm and end in three toed feet.

Because the shape came from a hand, the four feathers are unequal, and that is worth using rather than hiding. Give each finger its own color and the differences in height turn into a deliberate pattern. The palm and thumb together form the body, so treating that whole area as one flat brown keeps the bird readable underneath all the color above it.

Worth doing alongside the printable: have your child trace their own hand next to it and compare. The traced hands of a three year old and a nine year old produce noticeably different birds, and families who repeat this every year end up with an accidental growth chart made of turkeys.