Your preschoolers are excited about Thanksgiving, but they can’t sit still.
You need thanksgiving activities for preschoolers that hold their attention and actually teach something. But most ideas online are too complicated or need supplies you don’t have.
Preschoolers don’t need fancy setups. They need simple, hands-on fun that lets them move and create.
These activities work with short attention spans and busy hands, plus each includes a quick tip to make it easier.
Let’s make Thanksgiving week fun instead of frustrating.
Why Thanksgiving Activities Matter in Preschool Learning
Preschool children learn best through hands-on activities that feel like play. Thanksgiving gives teachers a perfect chance to help kids build important skills while having fun.
Through simple crafts, stories, and group activities, young children learn about gratitude, sharing, and working together.
These holiday thanksgiving activities for preschoolers do more than just celebrate. They help preschoolers practice following directions, expressing their feelings, and cooperating with classmates.
Kids also start to understand family traditions and what it means to be thankful.
This article shows how Thanksgiving activities help preschoolers grow and learn.
You’ll find practical ideas you can use in the classroom and discover why these experiences matter for young children’s development
Free Thanksgiving Activities for Preschoolars (Printables)
Celebrate gratitude and learning this Thanksgiving with free printables and lesson plans for kids.
Check out fun worksheets, crafts, and activities that make teaching thankfulness easy and engaging.
1. Turkey Counting Worksheets
Credits: Pinterest
Print pages showing turkeys with different numbers of feathers (1-10) for children to count and match to the correct numeral.
2. Turkey Color by Number Worksheets
Credits: Pinterest
Download free printables where children use a color key to reveal a hidden turkey picture by coloring numbered sections.
3. Thanksgiving I Spy Activity Sheets
Credits: Pinterest
Print pages filled with small Thanksgiving images where children count specific items like turkeys, pumpkins, or corn.
4. Simple Thanksgiving Word Tracing Pages
Credits: Pinterest
Download printables with Thanksgiving vocabulary words in dotted letters for children to trace, like “turkey,” “pie,” and “corn.”
Thanksgiving Arts and Crafts for Preschoolers
Make Thanksgiving extra special with simple, hands-on crafts for preschoolers. From paper turkeys to gratitude trees, these creative projects inspire thankfulness and fun.
5. Handprint Turkey Art
Press painted handprints onto paper to create colorful turkey shapes.
Each finger becomes a feather, and the thumb forms the turkey’s head. Children add googly eyes, an orange triangle beak, and a red wattle.
6. Paper Plate Pie Craft
Children decorate paper plates to look like pumpkin or apple pies using construction paper and cotton balls for whipped cream.
Paint the plate orange or brown, add a wavy paper crust, and sprinkle with actual cinnamon for a sensory element.
7. Corn Cob Painting
Use real corn cobs as painting tools by rolling them in paint and across paper.
Cut corn cobs in half or use them whole to create different texture effects with yellow, orange, and brown paint.
8. Feather Collage Creation
Provide real or craft feathers in fall colors for children to glue onto paper in any design they choose.
Children can sort feathers by size, color, or texture before arranging them into turkeys, trees, or abstract patterns.
9. Pumpkin Seed Mosaics
After scooping seeds from real pumpkins, clean and dry them for children to glue into patterns or pictures.
They can create designs, spell their names, or fill in outline drawings with seeds.
10. Leaf Rubbing Art
Place fall leaves under paper and rub crayons over the surface to reveal leaf shapes and vein patterns.
Can collect leaves from outside, choosing different sizes and shapes to create varied textures.
11. Turkey Hat Assembly
Cut and staple construction paper strips into headbands, then attach colorful feather cutouts for children to wear.
Children decorate their feathers with markers, glitter, or stickers before attaching them to the band.
12. Mayflower Ship Construction
Build simple boats using paper cups, craft sticks, and paper sails. Float them in water tables to test if they stay upright and move when children blow on the sails.
13. Thankful Tree Branch Display
Arrange real branches in a vase and have children hang paper leaves with drawings or words representing things they appreciate.
Each child creates multiple leaves throughout the week, building a full tree.
14. Pinecone Turkey Figures
Attach googly eyes, felt pieces, and pipe cleaner legs to pinecones to create standing turkey characters.
They bend pipe cleaners to form legs and feet, then add colorful felt feathers to the back.
15. Potato Stamp Harvest Prints
Cut potatoes into simple shapes like circles, triangles, and squares for children to dip in paint and stamp onto paper.
Create patterns, scenes, or random designs using fall colors.
16. Tissue Paper Stained Glass
Children tear and glue colored tissue paper onto contact paper cut into pumpkin or leaf shapes. Layer different colors to see how they blend when light shines through, then hang in windows.
Thanksgiving Literacy Activities
Build early reading and writing skills with fun Thanksgiving-themed literacy activities. Kids can enjoy stories, letter games, and gratitude writing to celebrate the season.
17. “I Am Thankful For” Story Writing
Children dictate while teachers write stories about what makes them grateful, creating personal books with their illustrations.
Each page can focus on a different person, toy, food, or experience they appreciate.
18. Thanksgiving Alphabet Hunt
Hide foam or paper letters around the classroom decorated with fall themes.
Children find letters, identify them by name and sound, then place them in alphabetical order on a display board.
19. Rhyming Turkey Feathers
Write rhyming word pairs on paper feathers (cat/hat, pie/sky, corn/horn) for children to match to a turkey body.
Say the words aloud to hear if they rhyme, then attach matching feathers together.
20. Harvest Vocabulary Cards
Create picture cards showing Thanksgiving items like turkey, corn, stuffing, and pie with words printed underneath.
Children match words to pictures, sort cards into categories, or use them in memory games.
21. Sequencing Story Strips
Print simple Thanksgiving story images showing events like preparing food, setting the table, eating dinner, and cleaning up.
Arrange cards in logical order while talking about what happens first, next, and last.
22. Letter Tracing in Sensory Bins
Fill bins with dried corn kernels, rice, or sand and let children practice tracing letters with their fingers or sticks.
Write letters on cards for children to copy in the sensory material.
23. Thanksgiving Poem Recitation
Teach short, simple poems about turkeys, being thankful, or fall harvest with repetitive lines and hand motions.
Children practice reciting poems together as a group, then individually for confidence building.
24. Name Recognition Placemats
Children decorate paper placemats with their names written in large letters at the top using fall colors and stickers.
They can trace over letters, decorate around them, or try copying their name independently.
25. Sound Sorting Feast
Gather toy or picture foods and sort them by beginning sounds into labeled baskets (turkey and tomato for “t” sound, pie and potato for “p”).
Children say each food name slowly to identify the first sound.
26. Story Retelling with Props
After reading a Thanksgiving story, provide simple props, puppets, or felt board pieces for children to retell the tale in their own words.
They can act out the story with friends, taking turns with different characters.
Gratitude and Social-Emotional Learning Activities
Help kids develop kindness, empathy, and thankfulness with simple gratitude and social-emotional learning activities. Encourage reflection, sharing, and positive connections every day.
27. Gratitude Circle Sharing
Gather in a circle and pass around a special object like a decorative pumpkin while each child shares one thing they appreciate.
Teach children to listen quietly while others speak and make eye contact with the speaker.
28. Kindness Feast Role Play
Set up a pretend Thanksgiving dinner where children practice polite phrases like “please,” “thank you,” and “you’re welcome” while serving each other plastic food.
Children take turns being the host and the guests.
29. Helping Hands Chart
Create a classroom chart where children add handprint stickers or signatures each time they help a friend with tasks like cleaning up or sharing.
Review the chart together to celebrate helpful behaviors.
30. Thankful Feelings Faces
Discuss different emotions and draw faces showing how being thankful makes us feel happy, warm, or content inside.
Children can draw their own feeling faces or choose from emotion cards when discussing gratitude.
31. Friendship Cornucopia
Children draw pictures of friends or family members and place them in a paper cornucopia display on the classroom wall.
Each child explains why they’re thankful for the people they drew, practicing speaking skills.
32. Sharing Practice Activities
Bring in items to share during snack time, like crackers or fruit pieces, where children practice dividing treats fairly among classmates.
Guide discussions about how sharing makes everyone feel included and happy.
33. Compliment Turkey Game
Write each child’s name on a paper feather and attach all feathers to a turkey cutout. Pull one feather at a time and have classmates say one nice thing about that person.
34. Community Helper Thank You Cards
Create simple cards to give to school staff, mail carriers, cafeteria workers, or other community helpers.
Children decorate cards and dictate thank you messages for teachers to write.
35. Calm Down Gratitude Jar
Fill a jar with water, glitter, and glycerin to create a calm-down tool.
When shaken, children watch glitter settle slowly while thinking of three things they’re grateful for.
The Bottom Line
These thanksgiving activities for preschoolers give you options for every moment, quick crafts for calm time, active games for high energy, and simple projects that teach. Most use supplies you already have.
Don’t make everything perfect.
Preschooers care that they made it themselves, not how it looks. Focus on joy and learning, not the finished product.
Bookmark this list for whenever you need fresh ideas. You’ve got activities that work with real preschoolers.
