Thanksgiving is a fun holiday to celebrate in school. The idea behind this holiday … one of gratitude and thankfulness … is something that everyone can participate in and enjoy. You may also be in need of Thanksgiving activities for early finishers. If so, scroll to the bottom of this post…!
You can incorporate Thanksgiving lessons and activities into just about any subject. Social studies, history, math, geography, arts and crafts … even science can be supplemented with holiday lessons and activities.
Thanksgiving Art and Craft Ideas
1. Make Gratitude Placements – this is a fun activity for students. You’ll need construction paper, child-safe scissors, old magazines, double-sided tape and clear contact paper.
You can start this off by having students brainstorm a list of things they are thankful for while you write them on the board. Then tell the kids that they’ll be looking for pictures that show or represent this list.
Depending on the age of your students, you may want to help them come up with some ideas of pictures that they could look for. For example, if the term is “family” they could look for any sort of family group doing something together.
Now have each student pick the top 5 things they’re thankful for. Pass out the construction paper, magazines, scissors and tape. Before they start cutting, have them label their placemat along the top or side edge. Something like “Things I’m Grateful (or Thankful) For.
Students will have fun searching for pictures that they’ll want to put on their placemats. Once they have enough to cover the construction paper, they can start taping them down.
Now each placemat needs to be covered in the contact paper. Once that’s done, they can take their work home and use their placemat during Thanksgiving dinner!
2. Thanksgiving Coloring – there are many places online where you can download free holiday printables. Coloring never goes out of style! Click to see dozens of coloring pages that your students can enjoy.
3. Fingerprint Tree – this is a fun activity. Parents will love this too, since it preserves their child’s little fingerprints. You’ll need this printable, some finger paints in fall colors, and a disposable plate to mix the paints.
Squirt some of the paint onto the plates and let the kids mix it around so that the colors look a bit more natural. Then simply have them place their fingertip in the paint and then press their finger onto the branches of the tree.
When they’ve finished, they can sign and date it. What a great keepsake for parents or grandparents!
Thanksgiving Writing Activities
- Who Are You Thankful For? Have your students think of a person in their life that they’re thankful for. They can write a letter, a poem, or a card to that person telling why they’re grateful for them.
- This Is How It Happened – Brainstorm a list of Thanksgiving words with your students. Challenge them to write a funny or serious story using as many of the words as possible!
- The First Feast – Read a story to your students about what foods were at the first Thanksgiving feast. Then have them pretend they are going back in time to that first meal and write about what 3 or 4 foods that they’d bring to share. Describe anything they can about their favorite foods.
Other Thanksgiving Activities
From having a real holiday feast in your classroom to showing short videos on the history of Thanksgiving, there are tons of ideas for ways to incorporate that holiday feeling into your teaching.
thanksgiving activities for early finishers
Do you have a great idea that your students loved? We’d love to hear about it!
