10 Things to Do on Thanksgiving While Waiting for The Food

1. Make a family word search with everyone names ahead of time. See who can find the most names the fastest.

2. Cover the table with butcher-block table. Trace plates at each seat and let the children draw meals.

3. Make a turkey out of pine cones. Have everyone say something they are thankful for and add a feather to the turkey.

4. Make a ship by attaching a construction sail to a paper bowl or paper. Have each person draw or write something they are thankful for on a slip of paper. Place it in/on the ship and sail it to the next person. Take turns reading the papers and guess the author.

5. Play pin the sail on the Mayflower OR pin the hat on the pilgrim.

6. Give children stuff to make their own turkey: use food items such as apples or pears for the body and toothpicks to add raisins, marshmallows, etc.

7. Play “What’s Missing.” Put 10 thanksgiving items on a tray and let everyone look at it for one minute. Provide paper and pencils. Take the tray away and see who can guess all the items. Variation: Take an item OFF the tray and see if they can guess which item is missing.

8. Tape butcher-blockw paper on the wall. Trace each child’s outline. Give them crayons and let them use their imagination to turn themselves into Pilgrims.

9. Paper Golf-Draw a fairway on a piece of paper with a hole at one end. Place pen on tee at other end of the hole. Close your eyes and try to draw a line from the tee to the hole. That’s one stroke. The next player tees off on the same sheet.

10. Animals-This is similar to playing war with cards. Everyone chooses an animal to be and tells each other. Deal out all the cards face down. Each player turns a card over to a discard pie. When you get the same card you have to shout out the other players  animal three times. The first one done gets the others discard pile. The first with all the cards wins. Also try making the animal sounds instead of saying the name.

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