It's Time For Turkey

Who's ready for some turkey?

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, children packed the meeting room of Thursday evening for , an hour-long workshop where kids made their own turkey crafts out of model-maker clay and learned some things while doing so.

"Model Magic Clay is just like paint," Program coordinator and elementary art teacher Doris Benter told the children. "You take yellow with blue, mix it together...I squish and twist it...do you see any green?"

"Yeah!" the crowd responded. 

Benter, a teacher at Portledge elementary school in Locust Valley, said she has been running programs like this for six years but had only just started this particular turkey one.

"They learned how to model with clay, color mixing," said Benter after the event. "And it's just a wonderful way to celebrate the holidays."

Kids first covered the whole turkey craft with clay of their choice. Next, they added eyes, a tin-foil body, wings, etc. The colors available were blue, yellow, brown, white and red, and many kids took advantage of the ability to mix colors together to create other kinds. 

"I want to give him a green mohawk!" a boy from the front of the room said to Benter.

"Then you're going to want to mix it with blue and yellow," she responded. 

Making wings for the turkey was the kids next goal.

"You can use the scissors to cut the wing tips," Benter explained. "Then you're going to press it on the back like this."

In the end, kids lined up their finished turkeys on the table for a photo, and the final result was colorful turkeys for all to take home.

But eating one, of course, will have to wait for Thursday.