20 Thanksgiving Activities for Kids

Thanksgiving is celebrated across the United States with zeal and enthusiasm. Children especially look forward to this day so that they can spend quality time with their families and friends. Most importantly, they eagerly wait for exciting gifts and delicious meals that their families have planned for them. Though it is a holiday, children shouldn’t stop learning. Isn’t it? Therefore, you can keep them entertained and, at the same time, enhance their learning experience by conducting Thanksgiving activities for kids. These Thanksgiving-themed holiday activities for kids at home are extremely beneficial for their cognitive development. 

Thanksgiving is all about love and appreciation for your loved ones. You need to teach kids to be grateful towards the people around them. Make this day a memorable one with fun Thanksgiving activities for kids. These activities are not only beneficial in entertaining children but also enhancing their knowledge and developing essential skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, communication, etc. 

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Fun Thanksgiving Activities for Kids

If you’re looking for the best Thanksgiving activities for kids? We’ve got you some of the exciting activities that will keep your child busy and entertained during the celebration. Before planning the activities for kids, you need to do a lot of research on what your child’s interests are. Based on that, you can conduct age-appropriate activities. Check out some of the best Thanksgiving activities for kids mentioned below:

  1. Make a turkey hat: This is a fun Thanksgiving activity for kids where they can spend their time creating a cool turkey hat for the celebration. You can make this hat using affordable materials found at home, such as paper, color pencils, glue, etc. Create a hat in the shape of a turkey and color them using crayons or watercolors. Add colorful feathers to make it look attractive.  
  2. Read stories: Children must know why they celebrate Thanksgiving and what is the history behind its celebration. For that, you can read stories about its history and traditions of celebrating this auspicious day. You must teach them the meaning of every custom and tradition that are being followed for celebrating Thanksgiving. Also, you need to make sure that the stories are presented in a fun and entertaining way.
  3. Create a gratitude jar: This is quite a cool activity for kids. You need to make everyone in the family show gratitude for their loved ones by writing on a sheet of paper. Fold the paper and keep it inside the jar. Then, ask children to read the paper aloud. With this, children will understand and know the feelings of gratitude and appreciation shown for each other and at the same time enhance their reading skills. 
  4. Play word scramble: To keep them busy during the celebration, you can play word scramble games with the children. You can provide a printable word scramble sheet on words related to Thanksgiving for children. They need to unscramble the words listed on the paper, for example, TKYURE (TURKEY), DCYAN (CANDY), RBAED (BREAD), etc. 
  5. Play scavenger hunt: This is a fun activity for children to develop their curiosity to learn something new. You can hide Thanksgiving gifts for children in all corners of the house. To make it interesting, you can give clues so that they can hunt for their gifts easily. With this, children will critically think about solving clues and hunting their gifts at the earliest.  
  6. Make a headband: To celebrate Thanksgiving in a quirky style, you can ask kids to make a turkey-shaped headband for the whole family. You can give necessary items required for making headbands such as paper, stationery items, crayons, etc.  Once it is made, ask everyone in the family to wear these headbands and enjoy their family feast together. 
  7. Conduct finger painting: To enhance your child’s creativity, you can make them do some creative stuff like thumb painting. Provide watercolors to children and ask them to dip their fingers into the paint. Then, allow them to paint a turkey by using only thumb impressions. This is quite a fun and interesting activity for kids to explore their creative side. 
  8. Recite poems: Thanksgiving is a day celebrated across the globe to appreciate and be grateful for the things that you have. You can ask kids to recite Thanksgiving poems to wish their family and friends in a beautiful way. These poems not only keep them entertained but also develops their vocabulary and language skills. With this, children can beautifully express their feelings and emotions for their loved ones.  
  9. Solve riddles: To learn more about festivity, you can conduct fun riddles for kids. Create a humorous atmosphere where your children enjoy their holiday solving Thanksgiving riddles. For example, What’s the best place to put your Thanksgiving turkey? Why did the pilgrims cross the road? Where did the first corn come from?, etc. These riddles enable children to critically think about the questions being asked and come up with logical answers.
  10. Make a cardboard turkey: To engage kids in crafts activities, you can ask them to make a turkey with the cardboard. Draw an outline of a turkey on a sheet of cardboard. Cut it and color it using brown color. Then, paste two googly eyes and a small triangle shaped nose on the face of the turkey. Finally, draw around six leaf shaped feathers and paste them behind the cardboard shaped turkey to give a complete look. 
  11. Write an essay: To develop your child’s writing skills, you can give them a task where they need to write an essay on Thanksgiving. You can assess their knowledge on Thanksgiving based on what they write. Writing an essay helps kids to expand their vocabulary and language skills. They can also improve their grammatical skills for better comprehension. 
  12. Make a turkey puppet: In this activity, you can ask your child to make a turkey using a glove. For that, you can take a brown color glove and paste a googly eye on the thumb of the glove, followed by a triangle-shaped nose. Then, take a four leaf-shaped colorful cloth and paste it on each finger, giving an appearance of colorful feathers. You can wear the glove and use it for the puppet show. 
  13. Paint a pumpkin: This is one of the coolest activities for kids that involves painting a pumpkin. You can give a pumpkin to your children and ask them to paint using watercolors. Painting a pumpkin creates a fun environment for children to enhance their creativity and, at the same time, develop their hand-eye coordination skills. 
  14. Draw a family tree: You can ask your children to draw a family tree. They can draw a tree on a sheet of paper and write their family names on each branch of a tree as per their generation. Then, color the leaves and branches of the tree using crayons. Later, you can ask them to hang it in their study room or a play area. 
  15. Solve crossword puzzles: This is a super fun game for kids to learn new words during the Thanksgiving celebration. You can provide a Thanksgiving crossword puzzle printable for kids to decode the words diagonally, vertically or horizontally. With this, children will enhance their vocabulary skills and sharpen their language skills. 
  16. Paint a fall leaves: This is the best activity for toddlers and preschoolers to keep them active on Thanksgiving Day. You can conduct drawing games for kids where they have to draw fall leaves. You can give them a drawing kit which includes a drawing sheet, pencils, erasers, crayons, watercolor paints, etc. 
  17. Roast marshmallows: You can ask kids to roast marshmallows in the backyard of your house along with family members. Children would enjoy this time where they get to assist their parents in roasting marshmallows at night. They can dance and sing along with roasting marshmallows. 
  18. Create a playdough pumpkin: In this activity, children are encouraged to showcase their talent of creativity in an interesting way. You can give colorful dough and ask them to make a pumpkin with it. To do that, you need to make a circle using orange-colored dough. Then, paste two googly eyes followed by a bean for the nose and a small arc for the mouth. Take a tiny stick and pierce it on top of the pumpkin. This activity enables children to develop their creativity skills and, at the same time, learn about the customs and traditions of celebrating Thanksgiving. 
  19. Conduct a talent show: This is a fun activity for children to showcase their talents to their family and friends. Kids can sing, dance or play instruments. They can perform in front of their family members to create a fun environment and at the same time enjoy their festive season with zeal and vigor. 
  20. Decorate house: On Thanksgiving Day, you can decorate your house with colorful lights, ornaments and other craft items prepared by your children. Ask kids to assist you in decorating the house and setting up a table for a family feast. For example, they make a pumpkin with playdough, prepare a Thanksgiving banner, make a pinecone turkey, create handprint turkeys, make Thanksgiving cards, etc. 

Benefits of Thanksgiving Activities for Kids

Some of the benefits of Thanksgiving activities for kids are mentioned below:

  • Enables understanding of Thanksgiving celebrations among children.
  • Develops creativity, communication and thinking skills in children.
  • Keeps children busy and entertained during the holiday season.
  • Enhances the learning experience of children.
  • Stimulates the development of the brain and muscles by actively participating in all the activities conducted for children on Thanksgiving Day.
  • Creates a strong bond between the children and the family members while playing games on this auspicious occasion.
  • Keeps the children active and energetic during the holiday season. 
  • Boosts confidence and motivation among the children to learn something new. 

Frequently Asked Questions on Thanksgiving Activities for Kids

What are some of the Thanksgiving activities for kids?

Some of the Thanksgiving activities for kids are solving riddles, playing a scramble, making a turkey puppet, writing an essay, playing scavenger hunt, drawing a family tree, solving crossword puzzles, reciting poems, etc.

What are the benefits of Thanksgiving activities for kids?

Some of the benefits of Thanksgiving activities for kids are that they keep themselves busy and entertained throughout the celebration. Most importantly, it helps them continue their learning even during the holidays and develop their essential skills.