Kindergarten Thanksgiving Activities: Sight Words, Counting, and More!
I’m not a pie kind of girl, but I make an exception for pumpkin pie! I only have it once a year, so I really look forward to it at Thanksgiving.
My favorite way to eat pumpkin pie is to warm it and put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it. Oh my goodness, it is so delicious. Okay, all this talk of pie has got my mouth watering! I can’t wait for Thanksgiving dessert. I’d be perfectly okay if we started our meal with dessert.
The real reason for this post is not to talk about pumpkin pie and make you hungry. I promise! I wanted to share some Kindergarten Thanksgiving activities…pie themed, of course!
Here’s a picture of everything you’ll need for these DIY Kindergarten Thanksgiving activities {except a bowl…I forgot to put the bowl in the picture!}.
You’ll need orange and brown construction paper, white pom-poms (or cotton balls), scissors, a sharpie marker, paper plates, and rubber cement.
I love rubber cement. I use it any time I have to glue something large. If you don’t have any, you really should get a jar and keep it on hand!
It’s much easier and faster than using a glue stick and it dries smoother than white glue. You can use my affiliate link to get some rubber cement for your classroom or homeschool needs by clicking here.
Kindergarten Thanksgiving Activities: Literacy
On 9 x 12 pieces of construction paper I drew large circles on the brown paper and slightly smaller circles on orange paper and cut them out. The orange circle is about an inch or so smaller than the brown circle. I made several of these at a time by stacking the construction paper. It was very quick.
As you can see they are not perfect circles, but what pie is? I used the rubber cement to glue the orange circle on top brown circle.
After the glue dried I cut the pie in quarters. For the sight word activity below you could definitely get away with cutting the pies in eighths. Those slices just need to be big enough to write letters on.
Confession time: I did not laminate these. WHAT? You didn’t laminate these? No, I did not. Ugh, I feel like I just said a bad word. As teachers, we laminate EVERYTHING!!! But I wanted them to look like little pieces of pie so I folded the edges of the brown paper up to give it a little crusty touch.
They were so quick to make, it wouldn’t be a huge deal to make them again. Plus with two pieces of construction paper glued together, they are pretty sturdy.
You can use this activity with as many words as your class is working on. You could use sight words or spelling words. To prep, just write each word on a paper plate and then write the same word on the pie slices. One letter per slice.
Students read the word on the plate, find the letters/pie slices needed to spell the word and put them in order on the plate.
Now you could stop there and just have the kids spell the words.
Or you could give students pom poms {or cotton balls} and have them add “whipped cream” to the pie slices. I like adding this option because students have to count how many letters are in the word and it helps to make them more aware of the number of letters in the word.
And what activity wouldn’t be complete without a recording sheet? Students record the words that they worked on. Click on the image below to download the freebie.
Kindergarten Thanksgiving Activities: Math
This activity is prepped the same, but I left the pie slices in quarters so that students can fit more whipped cream on each slice. Also, I didn’t mention it above, but I added a spoon to scoop out the whipped cream for a little added fine motor practice. An ice cream scooper would also work too.
Add an aluminum pie pan for a more realistic feel…and it looks cute too!
Students pick a pie piece and identify the number. They use the spoon to add that many “scoops” of whipped cream to the slice.
Below is a recording sheet for the math activity. The pumpkins are blank so students write in the numbers that they worked on. This allows you can pick the number range that your students work on, numbers to 10, 15, or 20. Whatever range your class is working on.
Click on the picture below to download the freebie.
Pumpkin Pie in a Cup
Pumpkin Pie in a Cup is one of my favorite no-bake Thanksgiving recipes. It requires just a few ingredients, so if you’re looking for a snack to keep in this fun “pie theme”. You’ll want to check out this blog post for the recipe plus a FREE sequencing page.
Whole Group Game
Here’s one more pie activity, this time to practice beginning sounds. It’s similar to the game I shared in this Halloween post.
This activity is from Tom the Turkey {A Letter Sound Game}. It’s an engaging and interactive activity to help students master letter sounds and letter recognition. You can use it as a large group activity, small group activity, or as a quick time filler. It would even be great for a homeschool game.
I charted the poem on large white paper. Do teachers still chart poems or am I old fashion and showing my age? I started teaching before Smart-boards so I guess that’s why I still like to chart poems! Hahaha
Students recite the chant while one student picks a letter from the container. Students can take turns coming up to the front of the room or sit in a circle and pass the container around.
While the students are reciting the chant they can help by making a stirring motion or pretend that they are adding a “dash” of letters with their hands.
The student picks a letter, identifies the letter and makes the sound. Then we all make the sound. This activity can continue for as long as time allows.
Uppercase and lowercase cards are included. You can use all uppercase, all lowercase, or a mixture of both. I used rubber cement to glue on the pictures. The images are included in the download to help spice up your poem.
After laminating the poem, I cut a small slit in the cauldron and put a paperclip on it. This is where we display the letter that we are working on.
I added a pie pan for an extra festive touch. You can pick these up from the dollar store. If you don’t have a pie pan, any container will do.
If you’re not wanting to write out the poem, don’t worry! Also included is a typed up copy. This would be great for displaying on a Smart Board, document camera, ect.
Also included in this packet are some follow-up pages. These work great as an easy but engaging small group activity. Or you could even use it as a whole group activity during the days leading up to Thanksgiving break.
Just print the page and slide in a page protector. Or supply each student with their own copy.
One person will pick out a card and make the letter sound without showing the card to the other students. The students determine which letter makes that sound. They can use a snap cube to cover the letter or color the pie that makes the sound.
There’s an uppercase version as well. You can have students use this the same way as the lowercase version. Or use this as a letter matching activity. Slide the page in a page protector and have students use magnetic letters to match the lowercase letters.
I hope you’re stuffed full of pumpkin pie and that you enjoyed these Kindergarten Thanksgiving Activities! For even more Thanksgiving activities and freebies check out this post.
