Enjoy these free Thanksgiving crafts, games, activities and other fun ideas!
Note: This blog post contains resources from our TpT store and our Amazon Associate store.
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Before diving into tons of free activities and games for your elementary students, take a look at my two best-selling Thanksgiving resources—year after year, they’re classroom favorites!
2. Click HERE for this fun, no-prep literacy packet.
Art Activities:
Thankful Poster
Gather old magazines,catalogs and shopping ads. Parents are happy to donate these items! Have students cut or draw pictures to represent what they are thankful for this holiday season.
Hand Turkey Craft
Students trace their hands on a piece of paper. On the thumb, students can add an eye, beak and wattle. Students may color the fingers any colors for the feathers of the turkey. They may choose to make them more colorful! Students can draw legs at the bottom of the palm.
Thanksgiving Fingerplays:
Good Manners
Good manners I show (point to self)
Wherever I go. (make two fingers walk)
"Excuse me, please," and "thank you," (three fingers)
Are just a few words
I should know. (point to self and shake head vertically)
Five Little Turkeys
This fingerplay works well with finger movements to count down from five.
Five little turkeys standing by the door,
One waddled off, and then there were four!
Four little turkeys under a tree,
One waddled off, and then there were three!
Three little turkeys with nothing to do,
One waddled off, and then there were two!
Two little turkeys in the morning sun,
One waddled off, and then there was one!
One little turkey, better run away!
For soon it will be Thanksgiving Day!
I’m a Little Turkey
Sing to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot.” Have students use hand movements to mimic a turkey’s body, wattle, and tail.
I’m a little turkey,
My name is Ted,
Here are my feathers,
Here is my head.
Gobble, gobble, gobble,
Is what I say,
Quick! Run and hide,
It’s Thanksgiving Day!
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Thanksgiving Vocabulary Words
abundance, autumn, blessings, bread, celebrate, cider, corn, cornucopia, cranberries, dessert, dinner, drumstick, eat, fall, family, feast, football, friends, gobble, gravy, gratitude, harvest, holiday, Indian, joy, kernels, laughter, leaves, leftovers, maize, Mayflower, Native Americans, November, occasion, oven, parade, pecan, pie, Pilgrims, potatoes, pumpkin, relatives, squash, stuffing, sweet potato, table, thankful, turkey, welcome, yams
Invite your students to brainstorm words they associate with Thanksgiving. Accept all ideas and encourage them to share why they chose each word.
Thanksgiving Word Detective
Give each student or small group a set of Thanksgiving vocabulary words, and challenge them to find the definitions using dictionaries or online resources. Once they have their definitions, have them create illustrated “dictionary” pages to share with the class.
Vocabulary Charades
Write the Thanksgiving vocabulary words on slips of paper, and let students take turns picking a word and acting it out without speaking. The rest of the class guesses the word. Words like feast, gobble, and parade are especially fun for students to act out!
Word Sort Challenge
Give students the vocabulary words on index cards or paper slips and challenge them to categorize them into groups like food, people, actions, and things you’re thankful for. This helps students understand the words' meanings and think critically about how to categorize information.
Thanksgiving Word Art
Encourage students to pick a Thanksgiving word and create a piece of word art that represents it. For example, they could draw a turkey for the word gobble or a family table for feast. Once they’re done, let students present their art and explain why they chose their design.
ABC Thanksgiving Story Challenge
In groups or individually, challenge students to write a Thanksgiving story that uses the vocabulary words in alphabetical order. For example, “Abundance is what I feel at Thanksgiving. Blessings, corn, and cranberries fill the table…” This activity is great for creativity and reinforces vocabulary!
Fill-in-the-Blank Thanksgiving Poem
Create a Thanksgiving-themed fill-in-the-blank poem and leave spaces for some of the vocabulary words. For example, “I am thankful for _______ (blessings) and _______ (family). I love to eat _______ (pie) and _______ (stuffing).” This activity can inspire some fun and unique poems!
Vocabulary Matching Game
Make a matching game with vocabulary words on one set of cards and definitions or images on another. Students can work in pairs to match the words to their definitions or illustrations, making learning the words a more hands-on activity.
Thanksgiving Games:
Turkey Chase
Students sit in a circle. Give the students two different colors balls or different colored gourds, apples, etc. One item represents the turkey. The second item represents the farmer. The students begin passing the turkey. Shortly after, the students begin passing the farmer in the same direction around the circle. The object of the game is to make the farmer catch the turkey.
You may also wish to use these resources from Amazon Associate for this game:
Turkey Bowling
Set up a mini “bowling alley” with empty plastic bottles decorated as turkeys (you can add construction paper feathers and faces). Students can roll a small pumpkin or ball to try to knock over the turkey pins. Score points to see who can bowl the most turkeys!
Thanksgiving Word Scramble Race
Write Thanksgiving-themed words (like pilgrim, turkey, feast) on index cards, but scramble the letters. Divide students into teams, and let them race to unscramble the words. Add a timer to increase the excitement, and the team with the most correctly unscrambled words wins!
Pin the Feather on the Turkey
Similar to "Pin the Tail on the Donkey," blindfold students and have them try to pin a paper feather onto a large turkey poster. See who can get closest to the turkey’s tail!
Harvest Scavenger Hunt
Create a list of Thanksgiving-themed items or images (like a tiny pumpkin, leaf, corn, feather, etc.) and hide them around the classroom or outdoor area. Give students clues or a checklist, and let them work in pairs to find as many items as possible within a set time.
Pumpkin Pie Spoons Relay
In a relay format, give each team a plastic spoon and a small “pumpkin” (you can use an orange ball or foam ball). Students race to carry the pumpkin from one end of the room to the other without dropping it. If it falls, they have to start again from the beginning. First team to finish wins!
Popping Popcorn
Students pretend to be a small round kernel of popcorn with a little water inside. Students pretend to be placed in a pan, microwave or popcorn popper. Students may be squatting in an open area on the floor or gymnasium. It is getting hot, hotter, even hotter! The water is starting to expand! Finally, the students begin POPPING into a popcorn bouncing up and down.
Turkey Feather Races
This activity works best in a hallway, along the back of a classroom or across a long table. Each student has their own straw and feather. Students take turns racing each other by blowing the feather from one designated location to the next.
You may also like these Thanksgiving activities from our TpT store:
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You will receive a Thanksgiving crossword puzzle, vocabulary word bank, definition page and an answer key. These worksheets work well for ESL, special education, early finishers, literacy stations and more.
Click HERE to see fun Thanksgiving resources in my Amazon Associate store.
Shelly Anton is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. ** This means there are Amazon affiliate links in these blog posts. This does not mean you pay a dime more when you purchase a product through the link. It just means I am trying to save you valuable teacher time by making it easier for you to find great resources for your students, and I earn a few cents for my research and time. Thank you for all you do for kids!