Even with the holidays fast approaching, kids still need to learn stuff. And creating lessons for every subject associated with seasonal and holiday themes can help keep students motivated and make learning more fun. That's why we love these Thanksgiving-themed math activities for elementary-aged kids. They're a great way to help kids learn important math concepts.
Thanksgiving Count, Trace, and Color Numbers 1 to 10
Preschool and kindergarten math concepts include learning to count and write numbers in word form. This worksheet combines multiple learning elements to count for a comprehensive math exercise. Each number, one through ten, is paired with a Thanksgiving image showing that number of items, which they can count and color. Below each image, kids can trace the letters to spell out each number.
Finish the Thanksgiving Patterns
Kids in kindergarten and first grade who are learning about patterns are challenged to find and draw the correct item to fit each Thanksgiving pattern. This math logic worksheet features cute images of things like pumpkins, corn, and turkeys for a fun, educational holiday activity. Answers are provided on a separate page.
Thanksgiving Dinner Math Word Problems
When children are introduced to math word problems, holiday-themed worksheets can make the challenge of solving these problems more fun and relatable. On this worksheet, kids have to answer five Thanksgiving dinner word problems using addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Answers are included upside-down in the bottom right corner of the page.
Thanksgiving Dinner Multiplication
Kids need to figure out how many people are coming to Thanksgiving dinner and how many of each food to serve on this multiplication worksheet. There are five problems to solve, and they include multiplying numbers up to 12. Once students solve the problems, they'll need to use those answers to draw the final Thanksgiving dinner. Answers to the multiplication problems are laid out on the second page of the document.
Thanksgiving Math Activities for Preschool
Fun and easy preschool math activities with Thanksgiving themes can include counting in order, identifying numbers and number words, identifying shapes, sorting objects, and comparing two amounts.
Pie Tin Representation Towers
Grab a bunch of empty pie tins for this simple math-building activity. Give each child access to about ten pie tins. Say or write a number, then ask students to stack that many pie tins into a tower. Encourage creativity with stacking methods like alternating a right-side-up tin with an upside-down tin to create a taller tower. These 3-dimensional representations of basic numbers help kids understand the numbers better and incorporate the classic Thanksgiving dessert, pie.
Candy Corn Patterns
Challenge preschoolers to create a unique pattern using about five candy corns placed on a piece of paper in front of them. Kids can use plastic knives to cut the candy corn sections and use the different colors for their pattern or simply turn each candy corn in a different direction. You can have students glue the candy corn in place or place them there and keep creating new patterns. Since kids this age are being introduced to patterns, it's best to show an example first.
Thanksgiving Math Activities for Grades K to 2
Teaching math to kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders involves connecting the math concepts they've previously learned. You can use first-grade math activities and subtraction games as inspiration for your own Thanksgiving activities with this age group.
Feather Shape Challenge
Instead of using feathers to make Native American crafts, use them in the feather-shaped challenge. In these grade levels, kids are learning about complex shapes and the different ways you can make each shape using other shapes. Give each student a stack of craft or real animal feathers. Draw or announce a shape they can actually make using the feathers. You can set a timer to make the challenge more difficult. Since feathers are relatively straight lines, you'll want to stick with shapes like a pentagon, hexagon, octagon, decagon, rhombus, and triangle.
Blind Measure Experiment
Thanksgiving cooking activities for kids are great for this age group when students get introduced to parts of a whole, or fractions, and measurements. Before you tackle big Thanksgiving meal prep together, get kids familiar with how these measurements look. Have a variety of cups, bowls, utensils, and other vessels on hand that don't have any measurement lines. Tell kids a measurement, such as one cup, and let them choose their vessel or utensil, then try to estimate that measurement by pouring common Thanksgiving ingredients like cornbread mix, cranberries, or cinnamon. Test their accuracy by pouring each child's measurement into an actual measuring cup or spoon.
Thanksgiving Math Activities for Grades 3 to 5
Kids in upper elementary grades are mastering complex subtraction, multiplication, fractions, and making graphs or charts. Look for ways to take simple math activities like multiplication games and give them a Thanksgiving twist.
Dice Bowling Turkey Chart
In the game of bowling, when a person gets three strikes in a row, it's called a "turkey." Use this fun play on words and some dice to create your own Thanksgiving game. You'll need 10 dice to represent the 10 pins in real bowling. On a turn, each player rolls or throws all nine dice at once. If they get three of the same number on this roll, it's a turkey, and they have to call out "Turkey!" Bowling features ten frames, or rounds, so give each kid ten turns. Have students create graphs or charts to show how many turkeys each player gets throughout the game.
Related: 19 Thanksgiving Language Arts Activities for Elementary-Aged Kids
Gratitude Multiplied
Thanksgiving is all about being thankful for what you have. Give thanks and practice multiplication with this quick group math game. Start by stating one thing in your life you are thankful for that includes a number bigger than one, like having a class filled with 15 kind kids. Then ask everyone else who has this same thing in their life to raise their hand. Now, kids will need to multiply your number of things by the number of people who didn't raise their hand to see how many of your things you'd need to give everyone what you have. In this example you'd have 15 kids in your class who did not raise their hand because they aren't teachers multiplied by the 15 kids from your statement. Give each student the chance to say something they are grateful for and repeat the process each time.
Be Thankful for Math
Thanksgiving activities for kids that incorporate age-appropriate math concepts bring a grateful attitude to mundane work. In the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, consider pairing worksheets, games, activities, crafts, and experiences related to the different aspects of this holiday to give kids a comprehensive and festive education.
