Fun Classroom Thanksgiving Activities for Math, Reading, Science, and More!

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate in the classroom than with engaging and standards-aligned activities that get your students excited to learn?

Whether you’re looking for math, reading, or science activities, I’ve got you covered. Here are some classroom Thanksgiving activities that are sure to bring the fun of the season into your lessons while keeping your students on task and learning!

Thanksgiving Math Worksheets and Other Thanksgiving Math Activities

These are fun Thanksgiving math activities that can be adjusted for your grade level standards. Here are some easy Thanksgiving math activities you can do in your classroom this November:

• Thanksgiving Feast Word Problems: Create a set of word problems related to a Thanksgiving meal. For example, “If there are 12 people at the table and each person eats 3 rolls, how many rolls do you need?” This is a fun way to work on multiplication, addition, or even division skills with a holiday twist!
• Thanksgiving Meal Shopping List: Create a shopping list for a Thanksgiving feast with different food items, assigning each a price. Then, have students add the amount of money needed to purchase everything on the list. For older students, you can give them a budget and have them calculate how much money they have leftover after they purchase everything on their list.
• Turkey Tally and Graphing: Give students a set of Thanksgiving-themed objects or pictures (such as turkeys, pies, pumpkins, or pilgrim hats). Have them tally the number of each item they see, then create a bar graph or pictograph to display the results.
• Thanksgiving Measurement Hunt: Hide Thanksgiving-related objects around the classroom (like mini pumpkins, corn cobs, or Thanksgiving decorations). Provide students with rulers or measuring tapes, and ask them to find and measure the length or height of each object. They’ll be practicing measurement skills while having fun on a hunt!

Thanksgiving Reading Comprehension and Other Thanksgiving ELA Activities

Here are some easy Thanksgiving reading and writing activities you can do in your classroom:

• Book Feast: Wrap Thanksgiving or autumn-themed books for the month of November. In the days leading up to Thanksgiving break, have students unwrap a book each day for a special read-aloud.
• Rewrite a Thanksgiving Story: Choose a Thanksgiving read-aloud and have students rewrite the ending. What if the first Thanksgiving didn’t go as planned? How would the characters’ actions change the outcome? This activity lets students practice creative writing while thinking about how a character’s actions affects the whole story.
• Thankful Letters: Instead of writing a traditional letter, have students write letters to someone they are thankful for. They can tell the recipient why they appreciate them and share examples of what that person has done to make them feel thankful.
• Thanksgiving Acrostic Poems: Choose Thanksgiving-related words (like “Thankful,” “Turkey,” or “Harvest”) and have students write acrostic poems. Each line of the poem will begin with a letter from the chosen word and can include things they associate with Thanksgiving, such as food, family, or fun traditions.
• Thanksgiving Fact and Opinion: Provide students with a list of Thanksgiving-related statements (such as “Turkeys are delicious” or “The first Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621”). Have them determine whether each statement is a fact or an opinion.
• Compare and Contrast Thanksgiving Stories: Read two different Thanksgiving stories and have students compare and contrast the characters, settings, and plot.

Practice character traits with this fun Thanksgiving mishaps themed reading worksheet. Students will love reading about the different Thanksgiving mishaps and deciding a character trait that describes the character. Grab it in my no-prep Thanksgiving ELA Worksheets resource.

Thanksgiving Science Activities and Worksheets

Here are some fun Thanksgiving science activities for the classroom:

• Corn Kernel Sink or Float: Fill a bowl with water and give students a handful of corn kernels. Have them predict whether the kernels will sink or float, then test their predictions.
• Cranberry Science: Sink or Swim? Give students a bowl of water and some fresh cranberries. Ask them to predict whether the cranberries will sink or float. After testing, cut open a cranberry to explore the air pockets inside which make it float.
• Turkey Baster Air Pressure Experiment Use turkey basters to explore the concept of air pressure! Have students squeeze the basters and observe how the air pushes water out of the tube.
• Pumpkin Volcano: Turn a small pumpkin into a mini volcano by carving out the inside and adding baking soda and vinegar. Watch as the pumpkin “erupts,” and use this as an opportunity to discuss states of matter.
• Feather Sorting and Observation: Collect different types of feathers and have students examine them with magnifying glasses. Let them sort the feathers by size, color, or texture. Then, discuss how feathers help birds (and turkeys!) stay warm, fly, and stay dry. This is a great intro to adaptations in nature. You can also collect and sort leaves if you don’t have easy access to feathers.

I hope these activities help you incorporate the fun Thanksgiving season into your regular math, science, reading, and writing standards!

You Can Grab Some of the Thanksgiving Activities Mentioned in This Post Here:

Get Ready for Christmas Next!