Thanksgiving Crafts for preschool & Kindergarten with No-Stress Printables
Getting ready for Thanksgiving in your preschool classroom?
You’re juggling lesson plans, center activities, and probably a parent conference or two. The last thing you need is complicated crafts that require 17 steps and supplies you don’t have.
I’ve pulled together some of my favorite Thanksgiving crafts for preschool & kindergarten kids that are actually manageable. These printable activities build fine motor skills like cutting, tracing, and gluing—while giving you something adorable for your bulletin board or a meaningful take-home project.
Here’s what makes these different:
- Low-prep. Most use scissors, glue, and crayons—things already in your classroom.
- Skill-building. Every craft works on fine motor development, name recognition, or early literacy skills.
- Flexible. Use them in centers, as whole-group activities, or send them home for family time
All of these activities are part of my printable Thanksgiving-themed printable sets, which are designed to make your planning easier. Let’s dig in.
Featured Thanksgiving Printable Crafts for Preschool
Turkey Name Craft
Name activities are always a hit, and this turkey name craft adds a festive Thanksgiving twist!
Each feather on the turkey has one letter from a child’s name. Kids cut out the feathers, arrange them in order, and glue them to create their personalized turkey.
What skills are they building?
- Scissor skills (cutting out feather shapes)
- Name construction (putting letters in the correct order)
- Name recognition and letter identification
- hand-eye coordination with gluing
Teacher Tip
Pre-cut the feathers for younger kids or those still developing scissor skills. For kids who are ready, let them cut independently – it’s great practice!
These feathered friends make a fun and festive bulletin board display. Your classroom will look adorable with a whole flock of name turkeys strutting across your wall. Parents love seeing their child’s name displayed, and kids feel so proud pointing out their turkey.
Bulletin Board Title Ideas:
- “Our Flock of Thankful Turkeys”
- “Gobblin’ Up Letter Practice”
- “We’re Thankful for Each Other”
Thanksgiving FINE MOTOR Craft Set
This printable fine motor craft set is perfect for Thanksgiving skills practice. It includes three crafts: a turkey, a pumpkin pie, and an ear of corn.
Each craft focuses on a variety of fine motor skills:
- Turkey Craft – Kids cut and paste pieces to build their turkey, trace lines on the body, snip the feathers, and punch holes around the body.
- Pumpkin Pie Craft – Features cutting, tracing, and hole punching. Kids love creating their own “slice” of pie!
- Ear of Corn Craft – Perfect for working on cutting along curved lines and adding detail with crayons or markers…..and yes, kids get the opportunity to use a hole punch with this one too!
What skills are they building?
- Cutting and gluing practice
- Line tracing for pre-writing practice
- Hole punching for hand strength
- Bilateral coordination (using both hands together)
Creative Variations for Each Craft
Want to take these crafts to the next level? Here are some fun ways to extend each one:
Turkey Craft – Paper Plate & Feathers Variation
Glue the finished turkey body pieces onto a paper plate and let kids add real craft feathers for a 3D effect.
The tactile element makes it extra engaging—and it looks impressive hanging in your classroom or going home with families.
Teacher Tip
If you don’t have craft feathers, use strips of construction paper, tissue paper, or even torn magazine pages. The texture and color variety make it just as engaging.
Pumpkin Pie Craft – 3D Whipped Cream Variation
After kids finish cutting, tracing, and hole punching their pumpkin pie, let them add a cotton ball as “whipped cream” on top. Kids love the soft texture, and it adds a fun sensory element to the craft.
Corn Craft – Watercolor Resist Decorative Corn
This variation is stunning and introduces kids to the concept of crayon resist.
Here’s how to do it:
- Print the corn cob on thick white paper.
- Have kids trace the dotted lines with yellow crayons (press firmly!).
- Paint watercolor stripes across the rows of corn using fall colors—orange, red, purple, brown.
- Then paint stripes across the columns using different colors.
- Watch the colors blend and create new shades while the yellow crayon resists the paint.
The result? Beautiful flint corn (also called decorative corn or fall corn) with a gingham-like pattern.
For the finishing touch, print the husk pieces on ivory or tan colored paper. Kids cut them out, hole punch along the edges, and glue them to the sides of the corn to create authentic-looking decorative corn.
Teacher Tip
This is a great way to talk about color mixing. Kids love discovering that red + yellow = orange, or blue + red = purple. The crayon resist technique is also fascinating for them to watch—the paint just slides right off the crayon!
This variation takes a simple printable and turns it into a legitimate art project that’s perfect for displaying or sending home.transforms a simple printable into a legitimate art project, perfect for display
Tear & Paste Crafts for November
Not ready for crafts that involve cutting? No problem.
The November tearing paper printable set includes over 12 printable tearing activities, but I want to highlight three perfect images for your Thanksgiving theme: a turkey, a cornucopia, and corn (which works perfectly as Indian corn).
Kids tear construction paper or tissue paper into small pieces and glue them onto the printed images. It’s simple, calming, and incredibly effective for building hand strength.
What skills are they building?
- Hand strength (tearing paper works those little hand muscles)
- Pincer grasp (picking up and placing small pieces)
- Eye-hand coordination
Teacher Tip
Pre-cut paper into strips to make tearing easier for younger kids. Add some fall-colored tissue paper – orange, yellow, red, and brown – and let kids experiment with layering colors.
Bonus Idea: Use the cornucopia as a coloring page, a scrap paper collage, or let kids add fruit and veggie stickers inside it. You can also have them draw or glue fruits and veggies. Talk about gratitude and what we’re thankful for while they work.
Here’s a great bonus! These tearing activities are incredibly calming. Some of your wiggliest kids will zone right in when they’re tearing and gluing. It’s a sensory-friendly fine motor task that works for all ability levels.
Fall & Thanksgiving Name Coloring Pages
Looking for something quick and meaningful? These name coloring pages are it.
The set includes designs with pumpkins, leaves, and a harvest-inspired border. You can customize each page with a child’s name or use seasonal words like “Thankful,” “Blessed,” or “Grateful.”
One of the designs even has opportunities for hole punching…or gluing beads onto the little circles would also be a fun seasonal twist.
What skills are they building?
- Name recognition
- Letter recognition
- Coloring control and hand strength
- Fine motor precision (especially with the optional hole punch border)
Teacher Tip
Print these on thicker paper and use them with watercolor paints for a beautiful art project. The hole punch border adds an extra fine motor challenge—and kids love the finished look.
Thanksgiving Placemat Idea: Attach the finished coloring page to a construction paper background, laminate it, and you’ve got a personalized Thanksgiving placemat! Kids can use them at snack time or take them home for their family’s Thanksgiving meal.
I love these coloring pages because they’re so versatile. Use them as a calm activity during transition times, send them home as a family project, or display them on a “We Are Thankful” bulletin board.
Hole punching is one of those underrated fine motor activities. It works the same muscles kids need for scissor control and writing. Plus, kids think it’s fun—which means they’ll actually want to do it.
Fold & Cut Feathers Craft
Fold-and-cut activities never get old with preschoolers.
Prep the activity by folding the printed paper in half. Kids carefully cut along the printed lines while keeping it folded, then open it up to see the symmetrical feather they created.
That moment when they unfold the paper? They’re always amazed at what they made. It’s SOOO much fun to watch them!
What skills are they building?
- Scissor skills along curved lines
- Bilateral coordination (one hand holds, one hand cuts)
- Following multi-step directions
- Understanding symmetry in a hands-on way
Teacher Tip
Show kids how to hold the folded paper together when cutting. If they struggle with keeping it closed, you can add a small piece of tape at the top to hold it together. Some kids catch on right away, others need a few tries—and that’s okay! The practice is what matters.
Gratitude Connection: Use these feathers to create a paper feather garland class thankful display. After kids cut out their feathers, write (or have them dictate) what they’re thankful for on each feather. Display them on a bulletin board or string them together as a garland.
I love this activity because it combines fine motor practice with a meaningful conversation about gratitude. Kids learn the words “thankful” and “grateful,” and they get to share what matters to them.
Thankful Paper Chain CRAFT
Here’s one of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions—and it’s a craft AND a fun fall fine motor activity rolled into one.
Use my dot sticker strips or hole punch strips to create a Thankful Paper Chain. After talking about gratitude, discuss things your class is grateful for. Write those things on the paper strips, loop them together, and create a chain.
What skills are they building?
- Fine motor control (looping and taping strips)
- Oral language (discussing what they’re thankful for)
- Vocabulary building (introducing “grateful” and “thankful”)
Teacher Tip
Send strips home with kids and ask families to write what they’re thankful for together. Bring them back to school and create a class chain. It becomes a beautiful keepsake that represents your whole classroom community.
This paper chain is a wonderful classroom decoration. Drape it across your bulletin board, hang it above your reading corner, or use it as a centerpiece for your Thanksgiving feast or snack time.
Purchase the Thanksgiving Craft Printables Today
Want to grab the Thanksgiving Craft Printables and have them ready for next week? You can find them in my shop. Print once, use them all season long.
Purchase the Thanksgiving Craft Printables on TPT
Do you prefer to shop on TPT? You can also purchase the Thanksgiving craft printables in my TPT store.
Additional Thanksgiving Ideas for Your Kids
Looking for additional Thanksgiving-themed ideas for your kids? Check out these ideas from Early Learning Ideas.
