Thanksgiving Activities for Kindergarten

Love, love, LOVE this time of year! Crisp, cool air, sweaters, boots and Turkey crafts! We call it no-school November in our school district, since there are so many days off…but that means we can add in some simple Thanksgiving Activities for Kindergarten!

Disguise a Turkey Family Project

Many schools have a monthly ‘family’ project for families and students to work together on. The intent is to promote communication, collaboration and an opportunity for grown-ups to be involved with their student(s) and education. So for the month of November this Disguise a Turkey project is lots of fun and sparks a lot of creativity! I always launch this project by reading the book Turkey Trouble. This book is about a turkey who disguises himself, so he doesn’t become the main course at Thanksgiving dinner.

Next, I send home a family/grown-up letter, along with a turkey template. The letter gives directions on disguising the turkey and has a place for date of return. When students return their Turkey in Disguise, they have an opportunity to share and talk about their turkey. I then hang them up on a bulletin board for everyone to check out.

Looking for the parent/grown-up letter & turkey template? Click the image below to download!

Turkey Handprint Poem

OH MY!! There is nothing sweeter than a little handprint. So how about a Turkey-themed Handprint, along with a poem. I print out one of the versions of this poem in color. Each student gets their own poem. I have a parent volunteer or find the time to paint each student’s hand and add it to the poem. After handprint has dried, students’ will fill in the missing words for the poem. This makes this activity meaningful and purposeful. Finally, I laminate each completed poem and have the students’ help me add a beaded pipe cleaner, along with a raffia bow.

Do you want this Turkey Handprint Poem Printable? You can find it in the Kindergarten Chaos Teacher’s Lounge! If you are not a member yet, click the link below to join!

{Faux} Watercolor Coffee Filter Turkey Craft Activity

@kindergarten_chaos

#answer to @spidermark790 #answer to @spidermark790 Have you ever seen a cuter Turkey?! So easy and fun to do! 💖#kidscrafts #kidcraft #coffeefilterart #homeschool #kindergartenchaos

♬ original sound – Kindergarten Chaos

Do you want the Turkey Body Template to make these [Faux] Watercolor Coffee Filter Turkeys? Click the image below for immediate download.

Decomposing Turkey Feathers & Pies

Teaching composing and decomposing in Kindergarten can be a little daunting at first. But once I unwrapped the standard, I realized that I could make this standard a little more palatable and fun! I start with decomposing 5, then 6 and on up.

Here are the directions on how I teach this and how students independently complete this activity. I start with an anchor chart, like the one I created above. We talk about the different combinations of 5 and how I can show this with 2 colors of feathers. I give students an opportunity to show how to decompose the number 5. I have them use the ‘and’ for this problem. Once they share that with me, they get to choose 2 colors and color the printable feathers. As for the pie decomposing numbers activity, we usually do that math activity during the same week of the turkey feathers. You can use it with any number, but the example shown is the number 7. This time I have the students choose 2 different types of pie and they show me on their whiteboard and the I give them the pieces of pie, as well as a paper plate. The paper plate just makes it a little more fun! Scroll down if you are interested in the FREE printable download to this Thanksgiving Decomposing activity!

Want this FREE Download? Click the image for immediate download.

Ordering Turkey Feather Numbers

This is another purposeful math activity that is great for the week before or week of Thanksgiving! This free printable includes counting by tens (1-100) and ordering numbers 1-10; 1-12; and 1-15. If you are interested in this, make sure you are a part of the Kindergarten Chaos Exclusive Member Club and receive our weekly emails. This freebie will be heading out to members email boxes this weekend! If you haven’t signed up, you can sign up HERE.

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