The week of Thanksgiving is always a fun time of learning in our home! We love to throw our usual curriculum out the window for the week and focus on the history of how Thanksgiving came to be. It’s also a great opportunity to dig deep into the themes of thankfulness, sharing, family, and humbleness. In this post, I share several fun printable Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers, kindergartners, and early elementary kids, as well as a variety of other activities you can do with your child for the holiday.
Plus, you will have access to my free Thanksgiving coloring book for preschoolers through 3rd grade found at the bottom of this post!
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Thanksgiving Picture Books
One of the best thanksgiving activities for preschoolers is to read great books. Reading aloud together is not only essential for language development, reading skills, and reading comprehension, but it is also fantastic for learning more about topics. In this case, reading well-written, living books full of facts about Thanksgiving is a great way to teach your child many valuable lessons.
Not only can you introduce themes of kindness, thankfulness, and generosity through literature, but also tons of historical facts regarding how the holiday came to be in the first place.
There are several wonderful Thanksgiving books that you should definitely check out with your kids! Most, if not all, of these should be available at your local library. Or, you can click on the links below to find them on Amazon.
- Give Thanks to the Lord by Karma Wilson
- The Pilgrim’s First Thanksgiving by Ann McGovern
- The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
- Thanksgiving Day at Our House: Thanksgiving Poems for the Very Young by Nancy White Carlstrom
- Cranberry Thanksgiving by Wende Devlin
- Balloons Over Broadway by Melissa Sweet
- A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting
- Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson
- Thankful by Eileen Spinelli
- Thank You Sarah by Laurie Halse Anderson
Thanksgiving Sensory Activities
In addition to reading books, sensory activities are a great way to engage young learners while teaching all about Thanksgiving.
What are sensory activities? They are simply activities that engage our senses, while also helping to develop essential fine motor skills in young kids.
You can find tons of inspiration for sensory activities, including printable thanksgiving activities for preschoolers, that spark the senses. Anything kids can touch and experience with their hands, ears, eyes, or taste is a great way to teach abstract concepts, such as Thanksgiving!
Here are a few of my favorite Thanksgiving sensory activities to do with preschoolers:
- Make pumpkin playdough together, then form a pretend Thanksgiving feast made of playdough!
- Contain the mess while letting your little artist express his creativity with this Thanksgiving baggie painting activity.
- A favorite sensory activity amongst preschoolers (and maybe not so favorite among the parents)…Thanksgiving slime! Check out these fun Thanksgiving slime recipes from Little Bins for Little Hands and Mom Dot.
- Let your child dig and discover exciting new things in this fun Thanksgiving sensory bin!
Printable Thanksgiving Activities for Preschoolers
The week of Thanksgiving is always a great time to take a break from the regular schoolwork and focus on time together as a family.
And, what better way to spend time together than to do crafts?!
Whether you are looking for printable Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers, simple construction paper crafts, painting projects, or toilet paper roll turkey craft, there are TONS of options for fun thanksgiving activities to do with your child.
Check out these fun printable Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers:
- Printable Thanksgiving Finger Puppets for Preschoolers
- Printable Connect The Dots Turkey for Thanksgiving
- “What Are You Thankful For?” Worksheet for Preschoolers through 3rd grade
If you are looking for a super easy and fun Thanksgiving craft to do with your young preschooler or kindergartner, check out this post by Simple Everyday Mom of 19 Easy Preschool Thanksgiving Crafts. There are so many great ideas for sensory play and fun learning using simple supplies!
Printable Thanksgiving Activities for Preschoolers- FREE Thanksgiving Coloring Book
One activity my kids love doing in their free time is coloring! But, coloring books are often too expensive for how quickly my kids will go through them.
For Thanksgiving this year, give your little learners hours of coloring time with this FREE Thanksgiving Coloring Book! There are enough coloring pages that your child can work on it the whole month of November if they want to. Or, just let them spend the entire week of Thanksgiving creating the most beautiful turkey coloring page!
Simply drop your email in the box below and you will instantly receive this 52-page Thanksgiving coloring book free download to print at home.
Homeschool Thanksgiving Lesson Plans for Preschool and Kindergarten Students
As I said before, we love to put our usual curriculum up for the week of Thanksgiving and simply focus on what the holiday is all about.
This can be accomplished through play, reading lots of books, cooking together, making Thanksgiving decorations for the table, playing Thanksgiving games, or spending time working on a Thanksgiving coloring page.
Or, you can choose to follow lesson plans that incorporate literacy skills and interactive worksheets.
If you choose to do lesson plans the week of Thanksgiving, check out these great, affordable options:
- Thanksgiving Unit- Printable Thanksgiving Activities for Preschoolers
- Thanksgiving Activities – Accurate History – Pilgrim and Wampanoag Lesson Plans
- Printable Thanksgiving Activities for Preschoolers And Lesson Plans (Turkey Activities)
These lessons plans are perfect for giving your child extra practice with alphabet letters, number recognition and reading a sight word. They also include many great recommendations for Thanksgiving books, printable Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers and kindergartners, and more fun activities!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Whether you are making pilgrim hats, baking pumpkin pie, gluing paper plate turkeys with googly eyes, reading all the books, or completing fun lesson plans, your child will have so much fun just spending time with you!
There are so many different ways to learn about Thanksgiving, and most of them can be done with the whole family and kids of all ages.
So, don’t be afraid to get messy and enjoy the happiest time of the year…Turkey time!
