Thanksgiving in the Classroom

In the district I taught in, we had the day before Thanksgiving off for a compensation day for conferences, which were usually the week before.  It was a rough time of the year.  It was the longest period of time during the school year that we had to go without a break or even a long weekend.  Coming off of report card and conference week, we were normally exhausted from the late nights and the students were thrown off from the half days.  Because we only taught Monday and Tuesday, it was hard to start any new topics.  We would usually spend those few days doing Thanksgiving related activities.  We still kept it academic but we tried to bring a little more fun to the activities they were doing.  

Here are a few activities to get your students through the next few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Math Task Cards

Task cards!  There are so many possibilities for these. Try using task cards for:
-math workshop - use as a center
-fast finishers
-small group work
-guided instruction
-review
-whole class games like scoot (put one card at each desk, after students solve the card on their desk, everyone moves to the next desk, continue moving until all cards are complete)
-math journals
-homework
-interactive bulletin board
-problem of the day

I've created a Thanksgiving Math set and a Thanksgiving Literacy set.  Both sets include 32 cards in color and in black and white.  There is a student recording sheet and an answer key.

 Skills covered include: Expanded form, word form, place value, skip counting, addition and subtraction story problems, even & odd numbers, mental math with addition and subtraction up to 20

Grab your Thanksgiving Math Task Cards now. 

Thanksgiving ELA Task Cards

Skills covered include: Synonyms, antonyms, prepositions, nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, punctuation, contractions, vowels, consonants, syllables

Grab Thanksgiving ELA Task Cards now!

Thanksgiving Bingo

Thanksgiving Bingo is a great way to have some fun and do some learning too. Since this game has lots of Thanksgiving foods it is a great time to talk about traditions and work on vocabulary. There are 30 different boards in color and black and white so you can truly just print and play.

Buy Thanksgiving Bingo Here

Multiplication Games

Practice multiplication facts with these Thanksgiving themed BUMP games. Bump is a super easy partner game to play. Students take turns spinning a spinner to pick a number and then they multiply it by the number at the bottom of the page. Find the answer and cover it with your piece. If you cover the same number twice it is locked. If someone else has one piece on an answer you can BUMP them off and cover it. Keep playing until someone runs out of their 10 pieces. 

This is great for math centers and I love that you can practice facts by number so you can pair up students who need fact practice with the same numbers.

Buy Multiplication Bump HERE

Addition Games

Similar to the multiplication bump games, are the addition games. These also have Thanksgiving themed pictures on them. You play the same way but add the numbers together instead of multiplying. This also includes a different game board for numbers 1-10 to make practicing facts by number even easier. I've included color versions and black and white versions of all the games. 

For a spinner you can use a pencil and paperclip or lay an actual spinner over the top. You can find my favorite suction cup spinners in my Amazon storefront under favorite tools for prepping kids activities. 

Buy Addition Bump HERE

Hopefully that gives you a few ideas of time filler activities you can do with a Thanksgiving theme to keep those days leading up to Thanksgiving fun but educational. Have a great rest of November.  Hang in there...a break is coming soon!