The Best Thanksgiving Activities for Preschoolers
Are you looking for some additional activity ideas to include in your Thanksgiving theme unit or lesson plans? From Thanksgiving crafts, art and math activities to sensory table and book ideas, this list of fun Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers is sure to help you out during the holiday season.
You and your little learners are going to have a great time with these hands-on learning activities, art ideas, book ideas, and more.
Thanksgiving Art Ideas
In America, when we think about Thanksgiving, we think about TURKEYS!
Turkey time is also the perfect time to work with feathers. Why not use them to create process art with young children? Check out all the different ways to paint with craft feathers.
Here are a few more great ideas for Thanksgiving-themed art activities to check out:
Corn cob painting by Natural Beach Living
Fork painting turkey feathers by Happy Toddler Playtime
Corn cob rubbing art by Happy Littles
Pumpkin Pie Painting by Left Brain Craft Brain
Thanksgiving Fine Motor Activities
Dig out your feathers, beads, and brightly colored paper. Here are some fun fine motor activities and crafts that are perfect for the month of November.
Printable Fine Motor Crafts
Get out a pair of scissors and glue stick. Your kids can work on building their fine motor skills while creating these Thanksgiving themed printable crafts. The turkey craft, pumpkin pie craft, and corn craft will give your kids an opportunity to work on hole punching, build scissors skills.
Feather Necklace Craft
Here is a craft that is also a great fine motor and counting activity. Your kids will enjoy making these turkey feather necklaces.
Turkey Task Cards
These turkey fine motor task cards are part of my Fall Dot Sticker Task Card set. They are a versatile addition to your fine motor task boxes. Aren’t the little turkeys cute? You can use dot stickers with them, q-tip paint with them, or use them for stamping as shown.
Thanksgiving Paper Tearing Activities
Tearing paper is a great way to help kids build hand strength. Looking for a super easy craft for the Thanksgiving season? Add fall-colored construction paper or scrap paper to a sensory bin and encourage kids to tear it into small pieces.
You can also glue the torn paper to printed images to make fun collages. The printables below are from my November Fine Motor Activities Set.
Fall and Thanksgiving Hole Punch Activities
Kids LOVE using hole punches. These hole punch strips are also part of my November Fine Motor Activities set.
Thankful Paper Chains
These turkey dot sticker strips make a great fine motor activity, but you can also use them to make a Thankful paper chain. After talking about gratitude, discuss things that we can be grateful for. You can also send strips home with kids. Write those things on the paper strips and make a paper chain.
Additional Fine Motor Ideas
Feather craft scissor practice by a Little Pinch of Perfect
Thanksgiving Playdough Ideas
I love putting together playdough trays or playdough kits for different seasons or themes. Here are some fun ideas for Thanksgiving playdough trays.
Fall-Themed Playdough Tray
Make a fall-themed playdough tray with items like pumpkins, acorns, tree slices, twigs, etc.
Turkey Playdough Tray
Make a turkey playdough tray by adding feathers, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, googly eyes, and beads to a divided serving tray.
How to Make Brown Playdough
Do you want to add some fall-colored playdough to your playdough trays? Well, it’s pretty easy to buy or make orange, red, and yellow playdough….but brown playdough is another story.
To make brown playdough, I use my quick playdough recipe and add 15 red, 15 yellow, and 3 blue drops or blue food coloring.
Additional Thanksgiving Playdough Ideas
Pumpkin pie playdough by Life Over C’s
Fall playdough recipes by Nurture Store
Turkey Math Activities
This fun, hands-on turkey math activity can be used in several different ways to help kids build number sense and math skills.
Here are some additional turkey-themed math activities that are perfect for young kids.
Feed the turkey counting activity by Fun Learning for Kids
Add and fill turkey by Creative Family Fun
Thanksgiving Literacy Activities
Kids get so excited about holidays. When you include holiday themes in your learning activities, the activities are more motivating. Here are some Thanksgiving-themed literacy activity ideas that you can use.
Turkey Name Puzzles
You can add a Thanksgiving twist to name activities when you use these turkey name puzzles.
Thanksgiving Salt Tray
Here’s an easy thanksgiving pre-writing activity. Kids can practice letter formation with a salt tray. Add a little cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice to the salt and your room will smell AMAZING. Instead of salt, you can also add corn to the salt tray.
I am Thankful Book
Use this free printable Thanksgiving books to talk about gratitude with your kids.
Books About Gratitude
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to introduce kids to the terms “gratitude” and “grateful” and “thankful” Here are more books about gratitude. These thankful books will be a great addition to your class library or use at circle time.
My Family Class Book
Because so many families gather together to celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s the perfect time to talk about families. Use this free family theme printable to make a class book about your kids and their family.
Turkey Themed Books
Here is another great list of books that are perfect for your preschool Thanksgiving theme. These turkey books are so much fun for kids in preschool and kindergarten. Your kids will love all the silly turkeys in the picture books.
Thanksgiving Theme Sensory Bin
Add silk leaves along with small pumpkins, acorns, or pinecones to a Thanksgiving theme sensory bin.
Squares of tissue paper in fall colors are also a fun addition to a sensory table. Additional fall, harvest, or Thanksgiving-themed sensory materials include
- straw
- corn
- cranberries in water
- feathers with craft noodles
Do you have some favorite Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers? I would love to hear about them.
Thanksgiving Songs
While you won’t find as many Thanksgiving songs as Christmas songs. Here are a few fun songs that you can share with your kids during Thanksgiving time.
A Turkey Dance by the Learning Station
I’m Gonna Eat on Thanksgiving Day by The Laurie Berkner Band
From the Store – Thanksgiving Activities for Preschoolers
Are you ready to add some fun turkey activities to your Thanksgiving unit and lesson plans? The following hands-on turkey learning activities are in my store. Click on the images below to check them out.
Purchase on TPT
Do you prefer to shop at Teachers Pay Teachers? You can also purchase the Thanksgiving Printables in my TPT Store.
Additional Thanksgiving Preschool Activities
More Seasonal Activity ideas
