Thanksgiving Activities for Preschool and Kindergarten
Today I’m sharing some Thanksgiving-themed activities for preschool and kindergarten. Let’s get started!

What can my child learn about Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is a great topic to study with our kids. From learning about why we celebrate this holiday to fostering an attitude of gratitude, a week of learning about Thanksgiving will be well worth the effort.
- history of Thanksgiving
- pilgrims and indians
- harvest time
- food and cooking
- season of autumn
- sharing and giving
- gratitude
- family and good relations
- experiencing feelings of togetherness
Objectives for a preschool & Kindergarten Thanksgiving unit
- Learn the history of the Thanksgiving holiday
- Differentiate Thanksgiving then and now
- Foster qualities of sharing, giving, and hospitality
- Build preschool and kindergarten skills through Thanksgiving-themed music, crafts, activities, math, language, and imaginative play.

Picture books about Thanksgiving
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- Sharing the Bread by Pat Zietlow Miller
- Cranberry Thanksgiving by Harry Devlin
- A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting
- Over the River and Through the Wood by Lydia Maria Child
- The Thanksgiving Door by Debbie Atwell
- The Thanksgiving Story by Alice Dalgliesh
- In November by Cynthia Rylant
- Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes
- Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson
- Thanksgiving is Here by Diane Goode
Printable Thanksgiving Poem
l like to add a memory piece to our units. Here is our Thanksgiving poem download if you would like to add it to your Thanksgiving unit as well.

Thanksgiving toy and prop ideas
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- Plastic figurine Indians (historical figurines)
- Pilgrim costumes
- Play kitchen set
- Thanksgiving photo booth props
- Turkey stuffed animal
- Pilgrim hats
- Kids table and chairs set
- Kids play dish set and utensil setting (table setting)

Music and videos about Thanksgiving
- Five Little Turkeys (song)
- Thankful (children’s Thanksgiving song)
- The Story of Thanksgiving (video)
- Easy Pumpkin Pie (how-to-video for kids)
Thanksgiving craft ideas for kids
- Make Thanksgiving Day placemats
- Turkey tracks painting
- Pilgrims and Indians made from toilet paper rolls
- Native American headbands
- Beaded pipe cleaner Indian corn

Preschool Thanksgiving activities
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- Practice setting the Thanksgiving table
- Thanksgiving conversation cards
- Make a thanksgiving dish together
- Thanksgiving Bingo
- Make Marshmallow turkey dessert treats
- Make easy Oreo turkey cookies

Thanksgiving Math activities
- Pumpkin Pie Number Sense activity (free printable)
- Thanksgiving turkey shape matching activity (free printable)
- Turkey do-a-dot colors and counting (free printable)
- Pilgrim shape matching craftivity
- Turkey feathers roll and count
- help measure ingredients out for thanksgiving meal
Thanksgiving literacy and writing activities
- Word family turkey sorting
- Turkey feather name practice
- Thanksgiving alphabet matching (free printable)
- Retell a story from the book list
- Thanksgiving color and write pages (free printable)
Printable Thanksgiving Emergent Readers
These printable, half-page emergent readers focus on sight word practice, as well as, word tracing, letter recognition, repetition, coloring, and reading complete sentences.
- The First Thanksgiving Helpers
- I like Thanksgiving Dinner
- I am Thankful
- Counting Pumpkins 1-10
- Apple Colors Fall Emergent Reader

Dramatic play ideas for preschool Thanksgiving unit
- Pie making play dough station
- Play kitchen for making Thanksgiving dinner
- Setting the Thanksgiving table
Free Printable Thanksgiving unit study plan
For my homeschool moms and teacher friends, I’ve complied all these ideas into a printable resource. This unit builder includes everything in this post and also leaves room for you to add material lists and notes.
Whether you are creating a Thanksgiving-themed lesson plan for preschool or kindergarten or just thinking of adding some Thanksgiving activities into your homeschool preschool unit later this year, this is a great printable resource to reference, with a lot of ideas to choose from!

Download the Thanksgiving Unit Study Plan
This printable is part of the Inspire the Mom free resource library. If you are already a member, hop on over to the free resource page. If not, fill out the quick form below and join for access to this freebie as well as other great content.
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What would you add to a preschool unit about Thanksgiving?
This post contains Amazon Affiliate links.