Thanksgiving Printable Activities
Stop! Here are the Thanksgiving Printable Activities you’ve been searching for. Plus, grab a free printable Thanksgiving dot activity.
You’ve got a dozen things on your to-do list for Thanksgiving. Let’s take “kids the kids occupied” off the list.
Another bonus is all these activities build important early academic skills – so you’re sneaking in a little learning for your children, too.
Below you’ll find 11 Thanksgiving printable activities for your children. Made by a teacher, tested by my children – these activities are sure to be a hit in your family.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. Read more here.
1 – Free Thanksgiving Dot Activity
Most of the activities in this post are from printables in my shop. But these cute Thanksgiving dot marker printables are totally free.
Just grab your favorite set of dot markers or use dot stickers.
Dot marker activity sheets have so many benefits:
- Your toddler can simply dot the sheet to develop their hand-eye coordination.
- Preschoolers can say the letter aloud as they dot.
- Kindergartners can dot the letters as you say them aloud.
- First-grade children can dot the letters that spell the sound – “Dot the letter that spells the first sound in cat.”
Grab these free Thanksgiving Dot Marker Activities by completing the box below. They are a gift for email subscribers, but you’re welcome to unsubscribe at any time.
- Related: Dot Marker Printables
2 – Thanksgiving Tracing Printables
Your preschooler can practice tracing circles and lines with the Thanksgiving tracing printables.
Stick these printable activities inside a dry-erase pouch and use dry erase markers to get several uses.
Why tracing?
- Practice makes permanent. We want children to effortlessly form these shapes and letters.
- Tracing is a precursor to printing. Children need to be able to form circles and other shapes and also make lines straight and diagonal lines in order to print letters.
Read more about letter formation in Letter Tracing Worksheets .
3 – Thanksgiving Cutting Practice
There are two types of cutting practice in these Thanksgiving printable activities. Your child can practice cutting straight lines and circles. Cutting is an important fine motor school to master prior to kindergarten.
For best results, print on cardstock. Using a sturdier paper helps preschoolers be successful when they are learning to cut. It has more resistance which makes it easier to hold, rotate, and cut.
Cutting the circles out on the Pie Printable is a more complicated skill. If your child is an advanced cutter, they can cut out the circles.
For younger preschoolers and those still learning to cut, an adult can cut out the pies on the circle dotted lines. Then your child can cut on the other lines.
My 8 year old actually cut out the pies for her four-year-old brother. Then he cut on the lines.
The Turkey Feather printables are a really fun Thanksgiving-themed cutting practice. Similar to the pies, it’s a good idea for an adult to cut out the bird.
Then your preschooler can cut on the dotted lines to make the feathers.
If you opt to use the black and white version of the turkey feathers, your child can color the turkey prior to you cutting it out.
4 – Thanksgiving Patterns Printable
The Thanksgiving Patterns printable also involves cutting and gluing.
This time, though, your child needs to identify which object comes next in the printable.
These are the simplest of patterns – they just are ABAB patterns. However, patterning for preschoolers is a big skill.
It develops the visual discrimination and thinking skills that are foundational for kindergarten reading and math.
5 – Thanksgiving What’s Different Printable
Like the pattern printable, the Thanksgiving What’s Different printable develops visual discrimination and thinking skills.
Your child needs to track across the row and identify the item that is different. It looks simple but there are big cognitive skills going on behind the scene.
7 – Thanksgiving Alphabet Activity
The most important academic skill your child can have for kindergarten is knowledge of the alphabet and letter sounds.
Now some parenting bloggers are going to tell you that knowing the alphabet is just a low-level skill – it’s simply a recall skill and not critical thinking. True, but also not.
Knowing the alphabet is foundational! The National Early Literacy Panel reviewed over 50 studies that looked at alphabetic knowledge and later reading success.
The finding was consistent across the studies: knowing letter names fluently is a predictor for later reading success.
So this printable helps your child build this important skill in a playful way. Your child simply matches an alphabet magnet or another letter manipulative to the letter on the turkeys.
When you first start this, I recommend you just try 5 or 6 letters. If your child shows interest, you can give them more letters. Over several days you can continue to practice.
- Related: Learning the Alphabet
8 – Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin
The Thanksgiving Preschool Printable Pack includes a set of alphabet pies. Cut them apart and add them to a sensory bin.
This makes learning the alphabet hands-on. Plus, this sensory bin is also great for practicing scooping and dumping. These are important fine motor skills.
Here’s how to make this Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin:
- Just grab any plastic bin and add in some oatmeal, play pumpkins, and measuring cups.
- Then add alphabet magnets to a muffin cup.
- Cut apart the letters in the alphabet pies and add them to the bin. Now you another great way to practice the alphabet with your child.
- Your child will match the letter on the printable pies to the letters in the muffin cups.
If your preschooler ends up playing with the sensory bin and doesn’t match the pies, that’s totally fine! You can always pull it out again the following day.
Skills developed:
- pouring, dumping, scooping
- knowledge of capacity and measurement
- hand-eye coordination
- matching
- letter recognition
9 – Turkey Color By Number Printables
This Thanksgiving Preschool Printable Pack also includes a turkey color by number printable.
Color by number is a great way to help your preschooler understand that pictures have lines that are the boundaries. Learning to color within the lines is an important fine motor skill and many of our children need a lot of practice to gain that skill.
Skills developed:
- coloring in small spaces
- coloring within lines
- number recognition
- color recognition
Grab 30+ pages of Thanksgiving Printables here
10 – Turkey Counting Printables
Use these turkey counting printables to play Turkey Search and Find. This game is a great way to get your preschooolers to get up and MOVE!
Search and Find is a play on some classic preschool and early elementary games like Scoot!
Turkey Search and Find also builds important number recognition and counting skills.
With this game, you will hide the turkeys with the numbers around your home. Your child will locate them and color in the correct number of pumpkins that match the number.
Here’s what you’ll do:
- Cut out the turkeys on the Turkey Number Sheet page.
- Tape them with painter’s tape to the walls in one room (easiest), hide them in one room (medium), or hide them in several rooms (challenging).
- Place the Turkey Recording Sheet on a clipboard.
- Give your child an orange crayon or marker.
- When your child finds one of the turkeys, they color in the matching number of pumpkins on the Turkey Recording Sheet.
11 – Turkey Emotions Printables
Managing big feelings is an important preschool skill. Sure, children need to learn pre-academic skills but having emotional regulation is foundational to learning.
- Related: Feelings Worksheets PDF
On these printables your child will do two things:
- Identify emotions
- Demonstrate empathy.
Having strong knowledge about emotions sets your child up for school success. Then they can use that knowledge to have empathy for how someone is feeling.
Recapping the Thanksgiving Printable Activity Pack
Here’s what you’ll get inside the Thanksgiving Printable Activity Pack for Preschoolers (and Kindergarten, too):
- Thanksgiving Tracing Printables
- Pumpkin Pie and Turkey Cutting Sheets
- Thanksgiving Pattern Identification
- Thanksgiving Same and Different Printable
- Turkey Gooble Alphabet Matching Activity
- Pumpkin Pie Sensory Bin
- Turkey Emotions printable
- Turkey Social Thinking printable
- Turkey Counting Game
Conclusion
Head on over to the Printable Parents’ Shop to grab these Thanksgiving Printable Activities. You’ll spend less than five minutes getting your child set up for learning during Thanksgiving week.
Your future self will thank you!