17 Activities to Celebrate Thanksgiving With Kids

Thanksgiving is just weeks away. To help you and the kids in your care celebrate, here are 17 activities you can plan, with minimal prep. Some of them are fun ways to celebrate the holiday; others will help children think more seriously about the meaning of giving thanks! All have been tested and enthusiastically approved!

1. Popcorn explosion

We’ll start with one for younger kids that’s simply fun! Cover a wide portion of the floor with extremely clean fabric. (In preschool, we used a bed sheet that was spotlessly cleaned and used only for this project each year.) Place the chairs in your room around the cloth and have the kids stand behind the chairs. In the very center of the material, put an air popcorn popper. Pour in popcorn kernels, but leave the lid of the popper off! Plug it in and let it pop! Kids love watching the popcorn explode into the air! (Make sure you have enough adults present to keep control.)

Note: You need to make some firm rules with this activity. No kids are allowed to pick up or touch a flying piece of popcorn; they must wait until the leaders put some in a bowl and hand it out.

2. Can contest

Challenge kids to bring in canned food for your church’s or local food bank. Line the cans up end-to end. The winning team is the one with the longest line.

3. Memorize 1 Thessalonians 5:18

Put action to the words by listening for kids to complain or say something is unfair. Remind them that we are to be thankful, not whiney! Leaders also need to show that they’re thankful by their own words and actions.

4. Thanks chain

For the two or three weeks before Thanksgiving, give each child in your club a strip of construction paper.  Ask them to write something that they’re thankful for on the paper. Connect the strips into a “thanks” paper chain and hang the chain in your club room.

5. Thanksgiving bingo

Play bingo with homemade bingo cards. Instead of numbers, use pictures of things for which we should be thankful: the Bible, church, parents, pets, siblings, friends, school, flowers, etc. As you play, remind the kids that we are always to be thankful.

6. Thanksgiving handprints

Make handprints by having the kids dip their hands into paint and then press down on a piece of paper. Write “Give Thanks” on the page. Ask the kids to write something for which they’re thankful on each finger of the print. Discuss ways we can use our hands to serve others.

7. Act it out

Talk about the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19) and how just one came back to thank God. Give the kids an opportunity to act out the story. (You could go through it two or three times to give everyone a chance to participate.) Ask: Are you thankful? What are you thankful for?

8. Pray

Teach children to emphasize thanksgiving when they pray. (Kids are often taught to ask for things in their prayers rather than express thankfulness for all they have.)

9. For Game Time

Give each team something to write on. At the word “go,” the team must work together to see how many words they can come up with from the longer word “thanksgiving.”

10. More games

Instead of running around the circle with a baton, give kids a pumpkin to carry. Serve pumpkin cookies, tarts or cupcakes for snack time.

11. Thanksgiving postcards

Provide everyone with blank postcards, stickers and markers. Ask each child to decorate the front side and then use the back side to write a note of thanksgiving to someone for whom they’re thankful. Encourage everyone to give their postcards to the person they wrote, or collect them and send them through the post office.

12. Thanksgiving cards

Provide everyone with blank postcards, stickers and markers. Have them make thanksgiving cards for individuals in the congregation who are bedridden, or residents of a local nursing home.

13. Thank-you cookies

Together as a group bake cookies. Give a plateful to the church maintenance team, the pastor, the ministry director, the nursery workers, etc.

14. Sing your thanks

Teach your kids songs about thanksgiving. The songs don’t necessarily have to be about the holiday; they can be about thanking to God at any time. The old classic “Thank You Lord for Saving My Soul” is one possibility. “Forever,” by Chris Tomlin, or “Doxology” are some other options.

15. Write a Thanksgiving book

As a big group (or maybe a small group) activity, see if you can come up with something to be thankful for starting with every letter of the alphabet. Kids could each draw a picture for a different letter. Collect all the pictures into a book. This could be a club tradition, and you could save the books from year to year.

16. Thanks tree

Give each child a construction paper leaf or two. Have each child write on a leaf something they are thankful for. Tie the leaves onto a branch and “plant” the branch in a flowerpot so that you have a thanks tree.

17. Thanks party

Ask each child to bring someone to club for the thanks party. The purpose is to let guests know that we are thankful for them. Most kids will probably bring their parents, which will give you another opportunity to get to know them. Honor the guests by having the children explain why they’re thankful for their guest(s). Plan a salvation message about being thankful to God for sending the Lord Jesus Christ to die for us, that He rose again and that He is now in heaven preparing a place for us.

What Thanksgiving ideas have you found work well in your club? Tell us about them in the comments!

For more giving ideas: It’s the season of giving; What kind of role model will you be?

To teach kids about giving thanks: 17 Activities to Celebrate Thanksgiving with Kids

The original blog was published by Linda Weddle. It has been updated by the Awana Editorial Team.