10 Hands-On, Fun-Filled Thanksgiving Centers for Kindergarten

September 30, 2025

I love Thanksgiving 🍂 Between the focus on gratitude, and all the cozy fall themes, it’s the perfect time to bring in fresh activities that feel festive and meaningful.

So I finally made a Thanksgiving Centres Pack—a collection of literacy, math, and fine motor centres designed to be easy-prep for teachers and hands-on fun for students. These Thanksgiving centers for Kindergarten not only tie into the season, but they also give little learners the chance to practice important skills like letter formation, number sense, cutting, and counting in playful, interactive ways.

When I used these centres in my own classroom, I loved how they encouraged independence and kept students engaged. Whether they were “building a Thanksgiving plate,” hunting for shapes around the room, or rolling dice to cover a pumpkin pie, my kids were learning while feeling like they were playing. And learning while having fun is always my goal with my Kinder kiddos!

In this post, I’ll walk you through each of the Thanksgiving centres included in the pack, how I set them up, and some of my favourite tips for making them run smoothly in your classroom.

Need read aloud ideas to go with these centres? Find my favourites and follow-up activities for them here: Kinder Read Alouds – Thanksgiving –

1. Build a Thanksgiving Plate

Let’s start off with my (and my student’s/kid’s) favourite!

This centre is always a student favourite because it combines math, fine motor, and dramatic play! 🍽️

Students pick a recipe card, then “build a plate” using Thanksgiving-themed foods like turkey legs, corn, carrots, rolls, and mashed potatoes. They practice counting, number recognition, and following directions, all while strengthening fine motor skills with tongs and loose parts.

Plus, it’s an instant invitation for dramatic play—students love making plates for their friends, teachers, or even toy animals!

All of the printables in this post that are not freebies can be found in my Kindergarten Thanksgiving Centres pack here.

2. Make a Thanksgiving Cookie Tray

This cut-and-paste activity is the perfect way to combine fine motor skills with a festive theme! 🍪

Students are invited to cut out their favourite Thanksgiving cookies and glue them onto their tray to design their own cookie batch. It’s great practice for scissor skills, hand–eye coordination, and glue control, and students love showing off their creative cookie trays when they’re done!

3. Thanksgiving Themed Pre-Writing and Letter Formation Printables

These printables make practicing fine motor and handwriting skills festive and fun!

Students can trace Thanksgiving-themed pre-writing lines to build pencil control and hand strength or use the uppercase and lowercase tracing mats for letter formation practice.

They can be laminated for repeated use with dry erase markers plus they’re low prep and an easy way to add a festive twist to a skill most students need practice with!

4. Thanksgiving Dab/Build & Read

These mats give students a hands-on way to practice letter recognition and beginning sounds while also building fine motor skills. 🖍️

Students can:

Dab the letters with bingo markers (or small stamps or sticker) or

Build the letters with loose parts like pom poms, snap cubes, or magnetic chips and then

Read a simple Thanksgiving themed decodable sentence.

It’s a fun, pencil free way to practice letter formation!

5. Thanksgiving Words Chart + Mini Book

This centre helps students strengthen vocabulary, writing, and reading skills with a seasonal twist. 📖

The Thanksgiving Word Chart provides picture support for 12 themed words (like turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, family, and more). Students can use it for writing on blank paper or white boards during centre time or as a reference for completing the mini book.

The Mini Book comes with 3 differentiated versions so you can easily meet the needs of your learners:

Trace the word
Write the word
Trace and write the word

There’s always a handful of students who love working on mini books, and the word chart is perfect for increasing independence in the writing centre!

6. Snap Cube Build & Trace

This activity is perfect for combining math, fine motor, and literacy practice! 🎲

Students use snap cubes to build Thanksgiving-themed pictures on the mats, then trace the matching word at the bottom. It’s a hands-on way to work on spatial awareness, strengthening fine motor skills and handwriting all in one.

7. Pattern Block Build & Trace

This centre combines math, fine motor, and early literacy skills in one engaging activity! 🔺🔵🟩 Plus it’s super low prep (just print and laminate) and easy to set up… just add a tub of pattern blocks!

Students use pattern blocks to build Thanksgiving-themed pictures, then trace the matching word at the bottom of the mat. This activity encourages spatial awareness, shape recognition, and handwriting practice while keeping learning hands-on and fun.

8. Pumpkin Pie Roll & Cover

A festive math game that helps students practice number recognition, subitizing, and fine motor skills! 🥧

Students roll a die, find the matching number (shown as numerals, fingers, or ten frames) and cover it with a counter (I used white pom poms to mimic whipped cream!). Keep rolling until the pumpkin pie is completely covered!

✨ Partner Play Option: Each student gets their own board. Take turns rolling and covering. If you roll a number that’s already covered, you skip your turn. The first to cover all of their numbers wins!

9. Pumpkin Pie Shape Hunt

Like Write the Room, but with a math twist! 🥧

Students search the classroom for pumpkin pie shape cards, then trace or colour the matching shapes on their recording sheet.

This simple, no-prep activity is always a class favourite and builds shape identification, visual discrimination, and fine motor skills in an active, hands-on way!

10. Turkey Feather Patterning (✨FREE✨ Patterning Cards)

This centre is a festive way to explore patterns, counting and strengthen fine motor skills! 🦃

Students make a turkey using brown play dough and decorate with goggly eyes, beaks (I cut them out of orange foam sheets) and legs (I made these using pipe cleaners!)! You can encourage them to use the feather cards to copy and extend a pattern or they can make their own sequence/pattern!

Best of all, the Turkey Feather Patterning Cards are a FREEBIE—so you can try this centre right away with your class!

Click here to grab the freebie or on the button below:

I hope these Thanksgiving centres give you fresh ideas and inspiration for your own classroom. If you’d like to grab all of these activities in one easy download, you can find them in my Thanksgiving Centres for Kindergarten pack here or by clicking on the image below: