20 Thanksgiving Crafts and Activities for Kids

These Thanksgiving crafts and activities for kids bring together turkey art, fall science, unplugged coding, and free printables. Choose a simple project for a preschooler, a puzzle for an elementary learner, or a hands-on activity the family can explore together.

The collection includes 20 Thanksgiving and fall activity ideas, followed by more seasonal learning links. Some are turkey-themed, while others use pumpkins, leaves, or familiar fall materials that work throughout November.

As a Maker Mom and software engineer, I like having different ways into a seasonal activity. One child may want to draw, another may love a coding puzzle, and another may be happiest making a prediction and watching what happens.

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Choose Your Thanksgiving Activity

Use the links below to jump to the kind of project you need. The activity titles open the full posts with their directions, supplies, and any included downloads.

Art, science, and engineering · Coding, technology, and patterns · Printables and activity planning · Plan a Thanksgiving activity session

For a first project, try the thankful tree or a simple turkey art activity. If your child enjoys following directions and solving puzzles, start with Turkey on the Run and work through the arrows together.

Match the activity to the help you can provide, as well as your child’s interests. A printable may be easy to set out, but a young child can still need someone to read directions or explain the task.

Thanksgiving Art, Science, and Engineering Activities

These 12 projects include turkey crafts and fall investigations with pumpkins and leaves. Read the full activity before gathering materials so you know which parts need adult preparation and which parts kids can handle.

1. How to Catch a Turkey Storybook Art

Pair a turkey story with a hands-on art activity for toddlers and preschoolers. This is a playful choice when you want to connect reading with making, rather than treat the craft as a separate task.

Give children room to choose colors and describe their picture afterward. You can ask what they remember from the story and how that idea shows up in the turkey they made, without expecting every child’s artwork to look alike.

2. Thanksgiving Salt Painting

Draw a turkey with glue, cover the lines with salt, and add watercolor to watch the color spread. The activity combines textured art with observations of liquid movement and dissolving, using supplies you may already have.

Set aside a flat drying space before you start, since the picture needs time before it can be handled. Let kids pause after a light touch of paint and describe how far the color travels along the raised outline.

3. Pumpkin Balance and Stacking Challenge

Use pumpkins for a building challenge that asks kids to think about balance and arrangement. Children can test a stack, notice when it falls, and change their design rather than follow one fixed construction plan.

Choose a stable work area and pumpkins that an adult can help manage. Ask kids what they changed between attempts and which arrangement they want to test next, so the conversation follows their actual results.

4. Colorful Toddler Turkey Craft

Turn a cardboard tube into a turkey by adding a marker face and colorful craft feathers. An adult prepares the openings, and children choose feathers and guide the stems into the tube.

This is a useful choice for exploring colors, comparing feather lengths, and practicing careful hand movements. Supervise loose feathers closely and adjust the preparation to the child using them, especially if the openings are hard to find or the turkey tips over.

5. Pumpkin Five Senses Investigation

Explore a pumpkin through observations and descriptive language in this preschool science investigation. It gives children a real object to examine and a reason to talk about the details they notice.

Use the full post to plan the observations and adult preparation, especially any cutting or food-related portion. Let children describe what they notice in their own words before offering vocabulary or comparing answers with someone else.

6. Pumpkin Eruptions and Demonstrations

The original pumpkin challenge collects several fall demonstrations in one post. Read the activity-specific directions and supervision requirements carefully, because the demonstrations use different materials and involve different levels of adult participation.

For a focused starting project, use our separate mini erupting pumpkins experiment. Keeping one investigation at a time makes it easier to gather the right materials and talk about what kids observe.

7. Nature Walk Crafts and Activities

Take your fall learning outside with a collection of nature walk ideas that connect finding, observing, and making. This is a good place to start when you want an outdoor experience before choosing an indoor craft.

Look through the options before your walk so you know which materials the project uses. Follow local collecting rules and leave unfamiliar plants and fungi alone, while encouraging children to notice shapes, textures, and colors along the way.

8. Chalk Pastel Leaf Rubbings

Use leaves as a starting point for science and art with this chalk pastel activity. Children can look closely at a leaf’s shape and surface, then compare those details with what appears in their artwork.

Gather a few different leaves rather than making the whole activity depend on finding one exact kind. Invite kids to compare the results and explain which leaf features were easiest to see, keeping the focus on observation as well as the finished picture.

9. Chalk Pastel Pumpkin Resist Art

Make pumpkin art with a glue resist technique and chalk pastels. This is a colorful fall option for kids who enjoy drawing and blending, with a raised outline that becomes part of the design.

Check the directions for the glue preparation and drying stage before scheduling the painting or coloring session. You can prepare outlines ahead when time is short, or let children draw their own pumpkins when the making process is the main activity.

10. Thankful Tree for Preschoolers

Build a paper tree and add leaves naming people, moments, and things your children appreciate. Our family puts the tree up on November 1 and adds to it throughout the month, using a free maple leaf template.

Children can draw, write, or dictate their contribution, so everyone can join at their own level. Add dates if you want to save the leaves as a keepsake, then read the collection together before Thanksgiving.

11. Dancing Cranberries Experiment

Observe cranberries in a simple fall science activity that gives kids a reason to watch closely and make predictions. It is an easy seasonal partner for turkey art when you want a science investigation alongside a craft.

Use the full post’s directions and notes about the berries instead of assuming every cranberry will behave the same way. Ask kids to describe what changes during the activity, and keep the observation separate from their first prediction.

12. Pumpkin Art with Cotton Swabs

Try a preschool pumpkin art activity using cotton swabs and a resist approach. The small painting tool offers a different experience from a brush and gives children another way to build a seasonal picture.

Set out a manageable amount of paint and let kids experiment with how they make marks. This can be a useful choice when you want a fall image without requiring children to draw a detailed pumpkin from scratch.

Thanksgiving Coding, Technology, and Pattern Activities

These four activities connect seasonal materials with ordered directions, patterns, or circuits. Some are unplugged, while the circuit activity uses components that require close adult supervision.

13. Candy Corn Sequencing Activity

Use a fall candy theme to introduce ordered arrangements in this preschool unplugged coding activity. The concrete pieces give children something they can point to and move while they talk about what comes next.

Choose materials appropriate for the children participating and supervise small pieces. Ask kids to describe the order they made, then compare it with the directions or example so they can spot where a change is needed.

14. Pumpkin Paper Circuits

Combine pumpkin art with a paper circuit project that explores how electrical components connect. This is an option for older children working with an adult who can help follow the circuit directions and check the materials.

Keep coin-cell batteries and other small components away from younger children and follow the full activity’s guidance. Encourage learners to explain the path they are building and investigate a connection when the intended result does not happen.

15. Turkey on the Run Coding Worksheet

Help Turkey reach the finish by writing a sequence of seven directional moves on a grid. Kids circle arrows, test them one at a time, and revise the program if Turkey lands somewhere they did not intend.

Print both the grid and the direction page so children can connect the route with the recorded instructions. A counter can track Turkey’s position, and the post includes a spoiler answer and debugging prompts for adults.

16. Fall Preschool Pattern Worksheets

Explore fall patterns with preschool worksheets that invite kids to notice and continue an arrangement. Talk about the part that repeats before asking a child to decide what belongs next.

Pattern recognition is a useful thinking skill, but a repeating pattern and a coding sequence are different ideas. A program’s instructions follow an order even when they do not repeat, which is a helpful distinction to make as children try more coding activities.

Thanksgiving Printables and Activity Planning

These four resources offer paper activities and a broader plan for fall learning. Open each full post to find its download links and choose the pages that match your child’s current skills.

17. Silly Pumpkin Faces

Use pumpkin face pieces to explore facial features and make different expressions with a toddler or preschooler. Children can rearrange the pieces and describe the face they created rather than work toward one correct-looking pumpkin.

Ask what they notice about the eyes or mouth as they move the pieces. An expression can lead to a conversation about feelings, while leaving room for the child to interpret the picture in their own way.

18. Free Thanksgiving Activity Worksheets

Choose from Thanksgiving paper activities that include I Spy, word search, number and letter recognition, coloring, and dinner-themed comparison math. The collection offers different tasks, so you do not need to print every page for one child.

Look through the pages first and select an activity the child can understand with the help available. Keep a pencil or crayons nearby and read any directions together before starting, especially when several ages are sharing the table.

19. Fall I Spy Worksheets

Use a fall I Spy printable for finding and counting seasonal pictures. It is a paper option when you want a quieter activity with a clear task and a chance to practice careful looking.

Children can mark pictures as they count or point while an adult helps record an answer. If the whole page feels overwhelming, focus on finding one type of picture first and add another when the child is ready.

20. Fall STEAM Activities by Age

Use the printable fall STEAM schedule to explore activities for toddlers, preschoolers, elementary learners, and middle school kids. It is a planning resource rather than one craft, so it can help you choose several projects across the season.

Start with your child’s interests and the level of help each activity needs. The age group is a guide, and you can simplify a task or add a challenge so children can participate meaningfully.

Plan a Thanksgiving Activity Session

Choose one main activity before adding extras, especially if you are fitting it around a busy day. A turkey craft and one printable can be plenty without turning the session into a long list of things to finish.

Read the directions and check the supplies before inviting children to start. Preparing a tube, cutting paper shapes, or making space for wet artwork can prevent a long pause right when kids are ready to try.

For a mixed-age group, keep the shared theme and vary the task. One child might dictate a thankful leaf while another writes a sentence, or one might follow a coding route with a counter while another plans the arrows first.

Place younger children’s materials apart from small circuit components, batteries, and other supplies meant for older learners. Keep the adult-supervised project where you can stay involved rather than relying on a child’s age alone.

Set up the activity away from active cooking and leave room for cleanup. If you are preparing a meal, choose a task that fits the supervision you can actually provide at that moment.

For classroom use, check what needs drying, cutting, or individual printing in advance. Have a simple option for children who would rather draw or dictate, and give them a clear place to put finished work.

A short conversation at the end helps kids connect the experience with their thinking. Ask what they changed, what surprised them, or which part they would try differently next time.

Questions About Thanksgiving Activities for Kids

What is a simple starting activity for a preschooler? The thankful tree lets children contribute a drawing or a few spoken words while an adult writes and handles the paper preparation.

The colorful turkey and storybook art activities are other options when a child wants to make something. Look at the supplies and the amount of adult help involved before deciding which version fits your child that day.

Which activities work without a screen? Turkey on the Run, the fall pattern pages, and candy corn sequencing are unplugged options, while the craft and science projects are hands-on as well.

You may use a screen to access the instructions or print a worksheet, then put it aside during the activity. Keeping a printed direction page nearby can help a partner follow the steps while children focus on the materials.

Do we need to buy every supply listed across the collection? Choose a single project first and check that post’s materials, rather than shopping for the whole roundup.

A paper activity may be the simplest place to begin if you already have a printer and pencils. A craft may be a better fit if you have cardboard tubes, colored paper, or art supplies ready to use.

Can we use these ideas throughout fall? The pumpkin, leaf, nature walk, and pattern activities can fit a wider fall theme, while the turkey and thankful tree projects make a more direct Thanksgiving connection.

You can combine them in a November plan without doing everything on Thanksgiving Day. Spread the projects across the month and leave time to revisit a favorite activity when a child wants another attempt.

Where are the free downloads? Follow the links to the worksheet posts, Turkey on the Run, the thankful tree, or the fall STEAM schedule and use the download section in that activity.

Print only the pages you need for your plan and check that you have both pages when an activity uses a puzzle and a recording sheet. The full posts explain how to use the materials together.

More Thanksgiving Ideas from Other Blogs

Our original roundup also linked to a 3D paper pumpkin from New Mom at 40. It offers another fall paper craft to explore if you enjoy making decorations.

For more ideas around the holiday meal, see Thanksgiving activities from Fab Working Mom Life. Review any outside activity’s supplies and directions before choosing it for your group.

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Continue into winter with our Christmas STEAM activities. If you are planning ahead for October, our Halloween STEAM collection offers more seasonal science, art, and coding ideas.

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