In the U.S., Thanksgiving brings hustle and bustle — preparing for family time, food celebrations, and often travel.
But, there’s also many possibilities for fun and games! So, I’ve gathered the best Thanksgiving ideas from around the web to make sure you have ways to keep play in your celebration with kids.
Thanksgiving Games
Crazy Turkey Game from Hobby Farm
Eat or Be Eaten Turkey Toss from Dinosaur and Octopus
Don’t Eat Tom Turkey from Happy Home Fairy
Go HERE for this game’s printable turkeys.
- Cover each of the turkeys with a small snack or treat (cereal, candy corn, M&M’s, etc – One of my Happy Home Friend’s even used frozen peas – haha!)
- One person in the group goes out of the room.
- One of the Turkeys on the game board is chosen by the group to be the “Tom Turkey.”
- The person comes back in the room and chooses a snack and eats it from off of each turkey. They keep eating the snacks until they get to “the Tom Turkey” that was chosen by the group. When they reach for that snack, everyone else yells, “Don’t eat Tom Turkey!!”
- That person’s turn is over and a new person goes out of the room to repeat the game.
- You can play as many rounds as you like, or print off multiple boards if you have a big group.
TURKEY STRUT from Kid Activities
1. Use pieces of masking tape to make turkey footprints all over the floor.
2. Start playing music.
3. Have children pretend to be turkeys and strut around the room.
4.When you stop the music, have the turkeys find footprints to stand on (one turkey to a footprint).
5. When you start the music again, have the turkeys continue strutting around the room.
Thanksgiving Memory Game from 365 Kid Games
- The players sit in a circle.
- The first player starts by saying, “At Thanksgiving dinner I ate turkey.”
- The next player must repeat this and add another dish, “At my Thanksgiving dinner I ate turkey and cranberry.”
- The third player must repeat it and add yet another dish, “At Thanksgiving dinner I ate turkey, cranberry, and stuffing.”
- The game continues with each player adding an item to the menu after first listing all the previous items in the exact order they were first said.
- If a player makes a mistake he drops out and the game continues until there is just one person left.
The First Thanksgiving Wampanoag Game from Scholastic
The Wampanoag played a game called the Pin Game. A Ring was attached to a stick, and you had to flip the ring up over tte stick, or pin.
Thanksgiving Play
(+ imagination of course!)
Simple Mayflower Boat Craft from I Can Teach My Child
Pilgrim Hat from Teach Preschool
Thanksgiving Pinecone Turkeys from What I Live For
Coffee Filter Turkeys from Critters and Crayons
Another Coffee Filter Turkey Idea from The Chocolate Muffin Tree
Turkey Mask from The Outlaw Mom
Pilgrim Ship Vegetable Platter from National Geographic (very cute!)
VIDEO: Mayflower: Kids Play from History.com
