Thankful Activities for Kindergarten {Plus a FREEBIE!}

Happy November!  I wanted to take a minute to share about a few things, including an amazing giveaway!  To say thank you for your dedication as teachers, I’ve teamed up with several other bloggers to give away two $250 TpT gift cards!  Click on the image below to enter!  The giveaway ends on November 13, 2018.

As a kindergarten teacher, it’s always so much fun to hear what my students are thankful for each year.  They have the biggest hearts and are so full of love for everyone (and everything) in their lives!

In my classroom, our first writing activities are always “About Me” activities.  Even the most reluctant writers are likely motivated to write about things they’re familiar with or like, which makes writing about thankfulness an activity that your whole class can get excited about!

A few years ago, I created this “I am Thankful” activities pack as a way to incorporate organized writing activities into our class discussions on thankfulness and Thanksgiving.  It includes six different activities that are meant to be spread out over multiple days.  In November, kindergarteners’ writing abilities vary pretty widely from drawing pictures to writing full sentences, and these activities accommodate all different ability levels.

The first part of the pack includes a graphic organizer that is a good brainstorming tool.  Students can draw pictures and/or write in each of the six circles.  I suggest projecting the page onto your whiteboard or drawing your own on chart paper and modeling how to do this first.

Once students have completed the graphic organizer, they can move on to some of the writing activities.  I have a basic writing page where they can pick one thing they’re thankful for and write and draw about it.

There is also a six-page mini book that corresponds nicely with the graphic organizer.  Students will practice transferring the words and drawings from their graphic organizer to the pages in the mini book.

By November, my bulletin boards are usually in need of a facelift – or at least an activity that isn’t about Halloween.  These turkeys are my absolute favorite!  They are as low-prep or as easy to customize as you wish.  By printing on colored cardstock, you can save some time putting these together, but you can also just print on white cardstock and let students color as they want.

These flip-up books are a little more advanced and they turn out really neat! These differ in that there are five pages instead of six just to keep them from being too much work.  These also look great on bulletin boards!

Here’s another type of flip-flap book that includes four spaces for writing.

What would a holiday in kindergarten be without a crown?  These crown templates are great because students can draw pictures and practice labeling.