Hands-On Thanksgiving Centers for Kindergarten
November is a busy and exciting time in kindergarten classrooms! With the Thanksgiving holiday break just around the corner, it can be fun and beneficial to incorporate some seasonal activities into the mix. Using themed centers can help students channel their excitement about the upcoming holiday into worthwhile literacy and math practice. In this post, Iโm going to share some hands-on Thanksgiving Centers for Kindergarten that will keep your students engaged in learning during this exciting holiday month!
Literacy Thanksgiving Centers
If you already use my low prep centers in your classroom, your kindergartners will be familiar with the simple format and routine of these centers. That means it will be quick and easy to add some extra Thanksgiving fun to your literacy rotations!
Phonics
Your students will love matching beginning sounds to letters with this fun spinner activity! In the Pumpkin Pie Beginning Sounds center, students will spin a letter and then cover a picture that has the corresponding beginning sound. They will continue spinning until all of the pictures have been covered.
Students can also practice reading CVC words in the -at and -an word families. As they read each word, students can listen for the ending sound to help them sort the leaves into the correct pile. This is great practice with short vowel word families! For additional fine motor practice, students will write the words they sorted on a recording sheet.
Sight Words
If your students could use extra practice with sight word identification and spelling, the Basket Full of Sight Words activity is the perfect fit! Each basket contains a sight word that students can spell using corresponding apple letter cards. This activity also includes blank baskets and apples so you can add any sight words youโd like your students to practice!
In the Scrumptious Sentences center, your students will use their literacy skills to arrange word cards into sentences. These fun sentences include common sight words as well as seasonal words with picture clues. Students can also use their knowledge of capitalization and punctuation to help them put the word cards in order.
Thanksgiving Literacy Games
Do your students rotate through centers with a partner or in a small group? If so, youโll definitely want to add these fun Thanksgiving literacy games to the rotation.
Your kindergartners will love playing Sight Word Memory with a partner, as they try to match and collect as many sight words as they can. There are also Thanksgiving-themed pictures included on each card to support students who might not be as independent with reading sight words.
Your students can also practice reading -at and -an words with CVC Bingo. Students can take turns choosing a card and reading the word out loud for everyone to hear. If they have the word on their card, they will cover it. Once students have covered all six words on their cards, they have a bingo! This game is one that students will want to play again and again, so itโs perfect for adding some engaging repetition to literacy practice.
Math Thanksgiving Centers
These Thanksgiving math centers are designed to be easy to prep, store, and use! After cutting and laminating for durability, youโll be able to add these activities to your math rotations with just a few small manipulatives. This is definitely an easy way to add some holiday excitement to math practice!
Counting
As your students Count the Thanksgiving Goodies, they will be practicing important one-to-one correspondence skills. After counting the objects on each card, they can write the correct number on the recording sheet. You can include some additional fine motor practice by providing numbered clothespins that students can clip to the correct card.
The Pilgrim Number Order center has students apply their counting skills to find the missing numbers in each sequence. As students try counting each sequence of three numbers, they will discover which number is missing. If you have laminated your task cards for durability, students can write directly on the cards with dry-erase markers. Students can also fill in the missing number using number tiles, magnets, or even numbered clothespins.
Ten Frames
Your students will be using ten frames to visualize and understand many math concepts in the future, so itโs helpful for them to practice using ten frames during math centers! In both the Turkey Trot and Set the Table centers, students will match a ten frame with the correct number. These activities also provide practice with number identification and one-to-one correspondence.
Thanksgiving Math Games
Finally, you can add some holiday fun and engagement to centers with these Thanksgiving math games! In the Counting Bingo game, students will need to count the items on their bingo cards before covering each Thanksgiving picture. For example, there are some cards with two ears of corn and some with three. The game continues until a student covers four pictures in a row.
Rake, Rattle, and Roll is a partner game that your students will love! Each student will take a turn rolling two dice and will then add the dots together. After they have counted the total number of dots, they will cover the corresponding number with a small manipulative. If they have already covered that number, their turn is over. The first person to cover all of their acorns is the winner!
Printable Thanksgiving Centers for Kindergarten
All of the Thanksgiving-themed centers mentioned above can be found in one printable resource! Each center comes with a recording sheet and a student-friendly illustrated instruction sheet to encourage independence and increase accountability.
You can use these math and literacy centers to add some holiday fun to your usual center rotations. Click below to take a closer look at everything included in these Thanksgiving Math and Literacy Centers for Kindergarten.
Thanksgiving Hands-On Math and Literacy Centers
Save These Thanksgiving Centers Ideas
These Thanksgiving centers are a great holiday supplement to my low prep centers for November. If youโd like to add these activities to your literacy and math rotations this fall, be sure to save this post! Just add the pin below to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest.
