Fun Thanksgiving Activities For Preschoolers

Thanksgiving is the perfect time to remind our kids how much God has blessed them. Use these fun Thanksgiving activities as an opportunity to cultivate a heart of thanksgiving in your child.

Thanksgiving Activities For Preschoolers

As you get ready for Thanksgiving, here’s a collection of fun hands-on Thanksgiving activities to share with your preschooler.

Build a Turkey

A strainer with a turkey head taped to it and feathers in the strainer holes.

Print out the turkey head (pdf file below). Tape it to a stainer ( We got these from the Dollar Tree).
Preschoolers can add feathers in several ways:
- Practice fine motor skills by trying to get the feathers into the holes.
- Sort and put in one or two colors.
- Counting Game (for more than one person). Each person starts with the same number of feathers. Taking turns they draw a number (or roll a dice) and place that many feathers into the strainer. The first one out of feathers is the winner.

Print out your turkey head.

Turkey Head – pdf download

Bake a pumpkin pie together.

Libby’s pumpkin pie mix has a great recipe right on the can.

Start a Thankful Pumpkin

Start a new tradition. At the beginning of November, start a Thankful Pumpkin. Starting at the top, write what each person is thankful for and write things they are thankful for.

Make butter or whipped cream

Children will love making butter and /or whipped cream for Thanksgiving dinner. Farm Activities for Preschoolers has simple instructions for making them.

Enjoy a family night of star gazing

Spend the evening as a family looking up at the stars. Talk about how David, as a shepherd, spent time under the stars thinking and singing songs (Psalms) about how thankful he was and how wonderful God was.

Watch Veggie Tale’s Madame Blueberry

Enjoy a family movie night with this fun Veggie Tale movie about Madame Blueberry, who has everything but still isn’t happy until she learns a valuable lesson about being thankful.

Visit a Native American Pow-Wow

See if there is a Native American Pow-wow in your area. Check out the Powwow Calendar to find a Powwow in the United States or Canada.

Take a nature walk in the woods
- explore
- look for animal tracks
- try to walk without anyone hearing your footsteps

Go Camping

If you don’t want to take an actual trip or can’t go camping this time of year in your area, then camp out in the living room or in the basement. While camping is a lot of fun, it’s also a great time to point out some of the things God has blessed us with that we’d miss if we had to camp out all the time.

Take a canoe trip

Help someone.

Let your child help an elderly friend or family member. Or look for something you can do as a family to help those in need in your area. Usually, churches are doing something this time of year. Let your little be as involved as possible.

A little boy helping his Grandpa dig a hole

Thanksgiving Preschool Crafts

Turkey Hand and Shoeprint

A turkey craft made from a shoe print and handprints.

Trace your child’s shoe on brown construction paper. Using brown paint, make handprints around the shoe print to look like feathers. Draw or add wiggle eyes, an orange beak, and a red waddle and legs.

Turkey Handprint with Feathers

Make a brown paint handprint. Then add feathers, a wiggle eye, an orange beak, and a red waddle.

Indian Shirt

Dye a t-shirt brown and cut fringe. If the shirt is long, enough girls can wear it as a dress. I have also used a pillowcase for this project. Older preschoolers can and beads. For a headband, cut a strip of brown construction paper or a paper bag. Add a feather or two.

brown dyed shirt with fringe cut to be an Indian outfit.

Foam Turkey Craft

Craft kits like this come with everything you need to make cute decorations for Thanksgiving. You can find them at places like Hobby Lobby or Oriental Trade.