15 Easy Thanksgiving Crafts for Preschoolers (2024)
You can teach your early learners all about the meaning of Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving crafts for preschoolers. I’m excited to share with you my favorite Thanksgiving craft ideas and activities to help make it happen.
There’s something special about Thanksgiving. This uniquely American holiday focuses on family and gratitude. Plus, Thanksgiving leaves out many commercial trappings you’ll find with other holidays.
It’s the perfect time to teach your preschoolers all kinds of important lessons! Keep reading to discover my favorite preschool Thanksgiving crafts for building literacy, numeracy, fine motor skills, and more with your preschoolers this November.
Preschool Thanksgiving Crafts for Literacy Learning Fun
Preschoolers need to develop strong early literacy skills for kindergarten. Helping our preschoolers learn to spell and write their names, recognize the letters of the alphabet, and grasp beginning reading skills are all important early literacy skills.
Thanksgiving craft ideas can make learning literacy concepts a lot of fun for kids this November. Check out some of my favorite Thanksgiving crafts that focus on literacy below.
Free Turkey Hats for Kids
These free turkey hats are perfect for kids to practice writing things they’re thankful for. They can even be used as a great preschool name craft this Fall.
Pluck the Feathers Activity
This printable Pluck the Feathers Activity includes letter identification and letter writing practice too. You’ll get cute turkey characters you can print in full color or black and white. These little turkey printables come with lots of feathers featuring capital letters.
You can have preschoolers pluck the letter feathers and color the letter they have chosen on the corresponding worksheet. Another idea would be to have preschoolers choose letter feathers to attach to their turkeys.
Thanksgiving Name Craft
Learning about the first Thanksgiving can be a great place to begin celebrating this holiday with your preschoolers. These adorable pilgrim name crafts will help you get started. Plus, they make adorable keepsakes for parents and grandparents.
This FREE Pilgrim Name Thanksgiving Craft will teach your preschoolers to write and spell their names while building fine motor skills this November. Simply print out the pilgrim template and assemble it as shown. Then write your child’s name on black paper and glue it on the pilgrim’s shirt.
Pete the Cat Sequencing Craft
Sequencing is an important early literacy skill that provides a strong foundation for beginning reading and critical thinking practice too. This literacy concept helps preschoolers learn to recognize patterns that help kids make sense of the world around them.
This Pete the Cat Sequencing Thanksgiving craft for preschoolers pairs well with James and Kimberly Dean’s book Pete the Cat: The First Thanksgiving. Your preschoolers will love learning the history of the holiday with their favorite cool cat and this Thanksgiving craft idea.
Practice Fine Motor Skills with Thanksgiving Craft Ideas
Fine motor skills can sometimes get overlooked in homeschool and preschool classrooms. However, these early skills are a really important part of helping preschoolers learn to tie their shoes, zip jackets, and begin writing too.
Thanksgiving crafts for preschoolers are a great place to begin practicing these skills with cutting, pasting, and coloring. Check out some of my favorite Thanksgiving crafts below.
Turkey Tear Thanksgiving Craft
I love tear art because it’s easy for preschoolers, relatively mess-free, and so much fun! In this Turkey Tear Thanksgiving Craft, your early learners will build fine motor skills as they tear construction paper and glue together their own turkey friends to celebrate the holiday.
Thankful Tree Craft Idea
What are you thankful for this year? This Thanksgiving craft for preschoolers helps kids learn to count their blessings and show gratitude this November. Plus, they’ll be building strong finger muscles and hand-eye coordination as they glue the leaves on this Thankful Tree Craft.
Thanksgiving Party Hats
Finally, Thanksgiving Party Hats are one of my favorite Thanksgiving craft ideas for preschoolers. These cute crafts help build fine motor skills with cutting, pasting, and coloring. Plus, your preschoolers are going to look adorable in these festive “Happy Thanksgiving” hats.
You might also enjoy my Turkey Hat Craft. It’s not just festive, it’s another opportunity to practice gratitude and handwriting. You can write things your children are thankful for on each turkey feather or turn it into a name craft by adding the letters of their name to the feathers.
Host a Thanksgiving Party for Preschoolers
I just love any opportunity to celebrate with my students! Thanksgiving is a fun holiday to celebrate in the classroom or at home. You can enjoy your favorite holiday foods, Thanksgiving craft ideas, and fun games too.
The Thanksgiving party hats would be so perfect for your Thanksgiving celebration this year! Another fun idea for your party is to host a Thanksgiving Day parade. You can learn about the history of the famous Macy’s parade in Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet. Then, don your “Happy Thanksgiving!” hats and have your own amazing parade this year!
You could host a Thanksgiving movie party too. Check out the recipe for Turkey Shaped Popcorn Balls from Wyse Guide to add a fun movie snack to your party too. Here are some of my favorite tried and true Thanksgiving films for kids:
Develop Numeracy Skills with Thanksgiving Math Activities
Thanksgiving math printables are perfect for helping preschoolers develop numeracy skills this November. I’ve got all kinds of fun math activities your kids can have fun with this Thanksgiving. Check out some of my favorites.
Thanksgiving Trot to 10
This Turkey Trot Thanksgiving activity is perfect for teaching preschoolers about measuring, counting, numbers, one to one correspondence, and letters. Grab this fun Thanksgiving math worksheet and get started with this fun non standard measurement turkey-themed game.
Thanksgiving Color by Number
Color by number worksheets are all kinds of early learning fun! Preschoolers can practice color identification, develop counting skills, and build fine motor skills as they discover the hidden Thanksgiving images on these printable Thanksgiving Color by Number Pages.
You’ll get printable color by number Thanksgiving pages featuring turkeys, pilgrims, and more. They’re the perfect take-home activity for your preschool learners and great for keeping busy on a rainy day this November.
Shape Turkey Craft Printable
Another fun way to get in extra shape practice and build fine motor skills with your preschool and kindergarten learners this November is to complete this adorable Shape Turkey Craft.
Your early learners will get to create their own turkey cut-and-paste friend with shape templates. Plus, color and count shapes using the included printable for more learning fun.
More Activities and Thanksgiving Crafts for Preschoolers
Finally, I want to share with you my Thanksgiving Lesson Plan for preschoolers. It’s filled with all kinds of important and engaging early learning activities you can do with your preschool learners at home and in the classroom this Fall.
You’ll find numeracy activities, fine motor skill building, reading readiness activities, crafts, games, and read-alouds to share with your preschoolers. Here are some of the fun activities included in this bundle:
Thanksgiving Books for Kids
There are lots of great book suggestions you can read aloud to your preschoolers in this Thanksgiving lesson plan too. All 15 activities and Thanksgiving crafts for preschoolers line up with these 5 picture books your kids will love:
Turkey Trouble by Wendy Silvano
10 Fat Turkeys by Tony Johnston and Rich Deas
The Great Turkey Race by Steve Metzger and Jim Paillot
A Plump and Perky Turkey by Teresa Bateman and Jeff Shelly
How to Catch a Turkey by Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton
What are your favorite Thanksgiving crafts to do with preschoolers? Share the Thanksgiving craft ideas you’re planning for your preschool classroom or homeschoolers this November in the comments. I can’t wait to read them and try some of your great ideas with my early learners too!
