Looking for Thanksgiving activities for your kids? Here are more than 30 Thanksgiving crafts, art activities, recipes, and books for kids and families, plus a printable list!
Updated October 2024
Once we get past the excitement of Halloween, November is both a time of settling down and settling into colder weather.
We still get outside, still gather leaves and acorns and pinecones and listen to the sound of geese honking as they fly south in their V formations, but we also start spending more time indoors getting cozy.
Thanksgiving is our big family holiday of the month, and we like to focus on family and gratitude and, of course, turkeys and the bounty of the autumn harvest.
We’ve put together a list of Thanksgiving activities for kids that you can enjoy all month long. The activities on our list include gratitude projects, creating with nature’s bounty, turkey arts and crafts, and a some of our favorite books about Thanksgiving.
(And, if you’d like a printable version of the list, scroll down to the bottom of this post to sign up for a handy PDF version!)
Activities for Thanksgiving
5 Turkey Arts and Crafts Activities
Because, let’s face it, the turkey ends up being the spokesbird for this holiday.
1. Experiment with different ways to make turkeys.
2. Learn how to draw and paint a turkey step-by-step (on Deep Space Sparkle).
3. Make these adorable cardboard turkeys (on Art Bar Blog).
5. Make pinecone turkeys (on a Pumpkin and a Prince).
6 Gratitude Activities for Families
Here are some ways to begin to instill thankfulness in our kids this month (and a good reminder for us adults who may forget how important this can be!).
6. Make a gratitude tree that you can also use as a centerpiece for your dinner table!
7. Create a Thanksgiving fall leaf garland and write what you are thankful for on each leaf before you add it to the garland.
8. Make some gratitude rocks by starting with melted crayon rock art and using permanent markers to add words for what you are grateful for.
9. Make Thanksgiving garlands with finger painted hands.
10. Make a thankful table with the kids (on Art Bar).
11. Make a thankful bunting as a family Thanksgiving art activity.
5 More Activities for Thanksgiving
Here are some fun activities that are especially good when you have a houseful of people!
12. Cover the table with some easel or Kraft paper and try scribble art.
13. If you have family and friends around for Thanksgiving, try one of these simple activities for mixed ages.
14. Build towers and sculptures with toothpicks and cranberries or grapes!
15. Use these printable pages as placemats or decorations (on Paper Trail Design).
16. Our Thanksgiving Creativity Pack is full of fun Thanksgiving art activities, drawing prompts, coloring pages and more!
6 Fall Nature Arts & Crafts
Use the autumn bounty to create art, crafts, and decorations this month.
17. Make some beautiful painted paper leaves to decorate your table with.
18. Take a nature walk after your Thanksgiving feast and try our nature scavenger hunt!
19. Make nature suncatchers to hang in your window!
20. Make a nature mobile with gathered materials and air dry clay.
21. Create lovely watercolor resist leaf rubbings.
22. Create your own nature diorama.
5 Thanksgiving Recipes to Cook Together
These are fun autumnal recipes to cook together as a family.
23. Bake a tasty apple bundt cake.
24. Make a delicious cranberry upside-down cake.
25. Bake some teddy bear bread together.
26. Bake some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.
27. Whip up a batch of pumpkin waffles for Thanksgiving breakfast.
3 More Activities for Connection
28. Try one of these Thanksgiving crafts for family connection.
29. Create a seasonal home library for your family.
30. And finally, don’t forget to head to the library and check out some books about Thanksgiving and gratitude.
Want even more creative ideas?
Check out our Thanksgiving Creativity pack!
Full of wonderfully fun ideas to help your family practice gratitude this season, this 38-page printable eBook includes: Drawing Prompts, Conversation Starters, Art Projects, and more!
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