Need activities for a Thanksgiving theme? It’s the perfect time to fill your preschool classroom with creativity, gratitude, and fun. These Thanksgiving activities for preschoolers combine hands-on learning, sensory play, and adorable turkey crafts your little learners will love.
Turkey Activities for Preschool
As you think about Thanksgiving activities for your preschoolers, remember what you know about preschoolers from research. Young children learn from the concrete to the abstract. Concepts of time, such as yesterday, today, tomorrow, last month, and last year are too abstract for young children to fully grasp. So teaching about historical events are even more meaningless to them. Focus your activities on being thankful, families, and turkeys because events around the First Thanksgiving will be difficult for preschoolers to understand and relate to their present experiences.
Play Dough Tray: Build a Turkey (Pre-K Pages) – This play dough tray is perfect for a Thanksgiving theme or celebration.
Turkey Popcorn Treat Bags (Pre-K Pages) – These turkey popcorn treat bags are quick, easy, and inexpensive to make and can be customized to meet your needs and your learners.
Turkey Activities for Pre-K
These turkey activities and games can be just what you need for your preschoolers, keeping the play in learning and developmentally appropriate at the forefront.
Turkey Baster Color Mixing (Pre-K Pages) – Explore color mixing and build fine motor skills with turkey basters and water.
Feathers on the Light Table (Pre-K Pages) – Feathers on the light tables are a fun exploration. Add some paper turkey body shapes to make even more play opportunities.
Thanksgiving Snacks Featuring Turkeys (Pre-K Pages) – Two easy snacks to make–Turkey Quesadilla Snacks and Pizza Turkeys.
Clothespin Feathers Turkey (Stir the Wonder) – These clothespin feather turkeys are easy to make and will allow your preschoolers to work on their fine motor skills.
Turkey Counting Rhyme (Growing Book by Book) – A counting rhyme that includes play dough and feathers!
Thanksgiving Treat Bag Topper (Pre-K Pages) – Free printable for treat bags for your preschoolers.
Thanksgiving Turkey Craft Ideas
How about making your own turkeys? With these fun activities, your little learners will enjoy creating and building skills.
Coffee Filter Turkey (Pre-K Pages) – This age appropriate art exploration can be done successfully by your little learners and will brighten any corner for Thanksgiving.
Turkey Craft with Corn Husk “Feathers” (Little Pinch of Perfect) – Paint corn husks to create feathers for a turkey decoration.
Torn Paper Turkeys (Resourceful Mama) – Tearing paper builds fine motor skills…and those paper pieces can be used to make turkeys!
Thankful Turkeys (Happy Hooligans) – Combine making turkeys and practicing gratitude.
Feather Letter Turkeys (Growing Book by Book) – Make turkeys with letter feathers that spell kids’ names.
Turkey Activities for Preschoolers
Paper Bag Turkeys (No Time for Flashcards) – A fun and easy activity for making turkeys that kids can play with as soon as they complete them. (No glue!)
Turkey Games for Thanksgiving
Toss, play, count, and sort with these games featuring turkeys!
Turkey Beanbag Toss Game (Pre-K Pages) – Build gross motor skills and academic skills with these three tossing games.
One-to-One Correspondence Games (Pre-K Pages) – Build counting and other math skills with these simple games.
Turkey Visual Discrimination Printable (Pre-K Pages) – Can you find the turkeys that are the same and the ones that are different?
Fine Motor Math Game: Turkey (Pre-K Pages) – Create this math game with resources you already have on hand. Your students will get lots of counting practice!
Cute Turkey Activities
Racing Turkeys Number Line Game (Fun Learning for Kids) – A simple counting and racing game with clothespins and a number line.
Thanksgiving Bingo (Pre-K Pages) – A free thematic bingo game for your classroom or Thanksgiving celebration.
Turkey Counting Mats (Pre-K Pages) – Free counting mats with ten frames.
Turkey Sticker Sort (Busy Toddler) – Sort the circle stickers onto the matching colors of turkey feathers.
Check out this research-based, playful learning unit in our curriculum shop!
The Ultimate Pre-K Thanksgiving Lesson Plan Bundle
15 of our most popular Thanksgiving theme resources, including math and literacy small group activities! Make learning fun with these hands-on resources!
Preschool Books and Songs for Thanksgiving
Supplement learning throughout your day and all through your classroom with songs and books about turkeys and giving thanks.
Thanksgiving Books for Preschoolers (Pre-K Pages) – A list of favorite Thanksgiving books to read aloud during the month of November.
Songs and Poems for Thanksgiving (Pre-K Pages) – These favorite songs are all about giving thanks, and of course, turkeys!
Books About Gratitude and Appreciation (Growing Book by Book) – A list of diverse books that show people expressing gratitude and thankfulness.
