Free Thanksgiving Activities for Kindergarten

Turn toilet paper tubes into Thanksgiving napkin rings.

Being a kindergarten teacher can be a rewarding experience. Introducing children to their first year of elementary school and watching as your students learn and grow are some of the joys of this profession. Despite all the positives, providing materials for different activities can become costly. When learning about Thanksgiving, there are several free activities that you can provide to your students.

Thankful Handprint Turkey

Have students share what they are thankful for while making a decoration for Thanksgiving with this free activity. Print the free hand print template at kid.creativity-portal.com (see References), or have them trace their own hands on construction paper. If you're having children use their own hand prints, print "Thankful Four" on the palm of the hand. The thumb serves as the turkey's head -- use an orange crayon to draw a beak on the head and a black crayon to make an eye. Have children use inventive spelling to write something they are thankful for in each of the four fingers or have them dictate what they are thankful for and write it in for them.

Toilet Paper Tube Napkin Rings

Create napkin rings for Thanksgiving dinner from recycled toilet paper tubes. Save empty toilet paper tubes and cut them in thirds. Provide children with different fall colored paints or markers -- brown, yellow, orange, red and purple, for example. Have kids use the paint or markers to color in the toilet paper tube sections. To use the rings, simply roll up a paper or cloth napkin and insert it inside the ring.

Thanksgiving Bingo

Play a game of Thanksgiving-themed bingo with your students. Print Thanksgiving-themed bingo cards from DLTK Cards (see References). To play the game, distribute the cards to your students, as well as bingo chips, pennies or some other object to mark the spaces. Cut out the call cards and place them in a hat or a bag. Randomly pull out one and announce the image shown on the card. Children mark off the image if it is on their bingo card. The first to fill in a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line wins the game.

Pumpkin Patterns

Reinforce letter-sound recognition of the letter P while having children practice making patterns with this activity. Print the pumpkin pattern sheet from First School (see References). Ask children to examine the paper and identify the letter on the paper, as well as the pictures. Discuss the sound the letter P makes. Have children use scissors to cut out the different images and glue them on the paper in the correct order to complete the pattern.

References

• Kids Creativity Portal: Thankful Four
• DLTK Cards: DLTK's Custom Bingo Cards
• First School: Pumpkin Patterns