Thanksgiving games for kids

Thanksgiving games at a glance

Games to play at the Thanksgiving table

These work sitting down, while the food cooks or between dinner and pie. None needs anything you won't already have.

Thankful A to Z

4 and up · At the table · You need: nothing

Go round the table through the alphabet. The first player names something they are thankful for that starts with A (apples, Aunt Ana), the next takes B, and so on to Z. Help a little one with the sound: "Mmm, what starts with mmm?" Skip X, or allow anything with an x in it. It practises first sounds, and a grown-up hears what everyone is glad about.

Pass the Pie

3 and up · At the table or on the rug · You need: an empty pie tin, music

Pass an empty pie tin round while music plays. When the music stops, whoever holds the tin answers a question from a jar: a favorite food, the funniest thing this year, someone they would invite to dinner. Little ones can make a turkey noise instead.

Guess How Many

5 and up · At the table · You need: a clear jar, something small to fill it

Fill a clear jar with popcorn kernels, dried beans or wrapped candies. Everyone writes a guess on a slip with their name. After dinner, count them out together in piles of ten (10, 20, 30, 31, 32) and the closest guess wins. It practises estimating and counting in tens.

Thanksgiving Would You Rather

5 and up · At the table · You need: nothing

Take turns asking, and everyone answers with one reason. Would you rather eat only pie for a week or only mashed potatoes? Ride a giant parade balloon or march in the band? Be friends with the turkey or with the pumpkin? Have Thanksgiving on the moon or under the sea?

Twenty Questions: What's on the Table?

6 and up · At the table · You need: nothing

One player thinks of something on the table (the gravy boat, a roll, Grandpa's fork). Everyone else has twenty yes-or-no questions to find it. Is it food? Is it hot? Is it bigger than my hand? The one who guesses thinks of the next.

One-Line Story

5 and up · At the table · You need: nothing

Start a story with one sentence, such as "Once there was a turkey who wanted to be in the parade", and each person adds one sentence. The rule is "yes, and": you keep what came before. The last person gives it an ending. For a starting idea, try the story idea generator.

I Spy at the Table

3 to 6 · At the table · You need: nothing

"I spy with my little eye something orange." For a reader just starting, spy by first sound instead: "something that starts with p" (pie, plate, pepper).

Name Five

7 and up · At the table · You need: a timer

Call out a category and the player has thirty seconds to name five: five pies, five things that are orange, five parade balloons, five things you can stuff, five words that rhyme with "pie". Give younger players a full minute.

Thankful Tower

6 and up · At the table · You need: a stacking-block game, a marker

Write a question on some of the blocks of a wooden stacking-block game (a happy memory, a person to thank, a hope for next year). Play as usual; when you pull a block with a question, answer it before you place it on top.

Games for after dinner

Games to get everyone moving once the plates are cleared. Move the breakables first.

Turkey Feather Hunt

3 and up · Indoors · You need: paper feathers in four colors

Cut feathers from colored paper and hide them round the room. Each color is worth points (brown 1, orange 2, yellow 5, red 10). When they are all found, every player adds up their feathers, and the little ones just count theirs. It practises adding and counting by fives and tens.

Pin the Feather on the Turkey

3 to 7 · Indoors · You need: a paper turkey, tape, a scarf

Draw a big turkey with no tail on paper and tape it to a wall or door. Each player gets a paper feather with tape on the back, closes their eyes (or wears a scarf over them), turns round once and sticks it on. The feather nearest the tail wins.

Turkey Waddle Relay

4 and up · Indoors or outside · You need: balloons

Teams line up. The first player holds a balloon between their knees, waddles to a chair and back, gobbling, and hands the balloon on. Drop it and you start again from where you dropped it. The first team through wins.

Pumpkin Bowling

4 and up · A hallway or outside · You need: a small pumpkin, 6 to 10 plastic bottles

Set up empty plastic bottles as pins and roll a small round pumpkin at them. Two rolls a turn; keep score on paper. Put a little water in the bottles for older kids so the pins are harder to knock over.

Turkey Freeze Dance

3 and up · Indoors · You need: music

Dance while the music plays. When it stops, freeze in the pose the caller names: a turkey, a pie cooling on the window, a parade balloon, a sleepy uncle after dinner. Anyone who wobbles becomes the next caller.

Thanksgiving Charades

6 and up · Indoors · You need: slips of paper

Write things to act out on slips: carving the turkey, a parade balloon, mashing potatoes, a full belly, raking leaves, a pie that is too hot, a football game. No talking. For children who can't read yet, draw a picture on the slip instead.

Turkey, Turkey, Gobble

3 to 6 · Indoors or outside · You need: nothing

Players sit in a circle. One walks round tapping heads, "turkey, turkey, turkey", and then taps one with "gobble!" The gobbler chases the tapper round the circle; if the tapper reaches the empty spot first, the gobbler walks round next.

Parade Follow the Leader

3 and up · Anywhere · You need: nothing

Make a parade. The leader marches, hops, flaps like a turkey or floats like a giant balloon, and everyone behind does the same. Swap leaders at every corner.

Fall Nature Hunt

4 and up · Outside · You need: a bag, the list here

Go outside with a list and a bag: a red leaf, a yellow leaf, a pinecone, a smooth stone, a seed, something that crunches, a stick shaped like a letter, and something that smells like fall. Draw a little picture beside each word so pre-readers can hunt too. Look but don't pick anything you are not sure is safe to touch.

Acorn Toss

3 and up · Outside · You need: acorns or pinecones, cups or a bucket

Set a few cups or a bucket at different distances and give each cup a number of points. Players toss acorns or pinecones from a line and add up what lands in. Move the line closer for the youngest.

Quiet games for the hour after pie

Turkey Feathers

6 and up · At the table · You need: paper, a pencil

A word-guessing game. One player thinks of a Thanksgiving word and draws a dash for each letter, then a turkey with no tail. Guessers call letters. A right letter goes on its dash; a wrong one adds a tail feather. Guess the word before the turkey has seven feathers.

Words in THANKSGIVING

7 and up · At the table · You need: paper, a pencil

Write THANKSGIVING at the top of a page. In five minutes, how many words can you make from its letters, using each letter only as many times as it appears? A three-letter word is 1 point, four letters 2, five or more 3. Some to find: thank, think, king, sing, giant, night, skin, giving, having, things.

Thanksgiving Word Scramble

6 and up · At the table · You need: the list on this page

Unscramble the words in the list under these games. Read them aloud for a child who is still learning to read and let them say the answer.

Draw the Turkey Together

4 and up · At the table · You need: paper, crayons

Pass one sheet round the table. The first person draws a turkey's body, the next adds a head, then feet, a tail, a hat, a background, until everyone has drawn one thing. Give it a name and a story.

Thanksgiving word scramble

Cover the answer column, or fold the printout, before you hand it over.

Free online games for the long wait

For the car ride, the airport or the hour before dinner. None of these is a Thanksgiving game. All of them ask a reading or math question as you play, start easy enough for kindergarten and play in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with no sign-up, no download and no ads.

Every other game is in the arcade. A Just play mode in each game turns the questions off.

Thanksgiving math at the table

• Set the table. One plate for each person: how many plates? How many forks if everyone gets two?
• Cut the pie. Cut it into 8. If 3 pieces are eaten, what fraction is left? (Five eighths.)
• Count down to dinner. Dinner is at 4:00 and it is 2:30 now. How long to wait? (An hour and a half.)
• Double the rolls. The recipe makes 12 rolls and 24 people are coming. How much of everything do we need? (Twice as much.)
• Guess, then count. Guess how many grapes are in the bowl, then count them in tens.

Thanksgiving games for school

Teaching the week before the break? Thanksgiving classroom games has whole-class games that need no preparation, Thanksgiving math and word games for kindergarten to 8th grade, and the free online games that work on school Chromebooks.

More for the long weekend

• Thanksgiving recipes for kids: sides children can help make on the day (they mash the potatoes, pop the cranberries and snap the green beans), turkey snacks and no-bake pumpkin pie cups, with every hot or sharp step marked for a grown-up.
• Thanksgiving game night: six card and dice games for the whole table, from Pig while the turkey cooks to Yacht after pie, with the rules on one printed page.
• Road trip games: driving to Thanksgiving? The License Plate Game for all 50 states on one phone, car games for every age, and trip checklists with one for the Thanksgiving drive.
• Rainy day activities for kids: about 100 indoor and fall things to do, with what you need and how long each takes.
• Thanksgiving coloring pages: a turkey, pumpkin pie, corn, a family table and a thankful jar to fill in, from big simple pictures for the youngest to a mandala.
• Thanksgiving worksheets: bingo, mazes, crosswords and secret codes to print for the kids' table, sorted by grade.
• Free coloring pages to color online or print.
• The Activity Book: word finds, mazes and puzzles, a new page every day, printable with answers.
• Free stories for kids to read together, at every reading level.

Questions parents ask

When is Thanksgiving 2026?

Thanksgiving in the United States is Thursday, November 26, 2026. In Canada it was Monday, October 12, 2026. The games here work for either.

What Thanksgiving games can toddlers and preschoolers play?

Pass the Pie, I Spy at the Table, Turkey Freeze Dance, Turkey, Turkey, Gobble and a feather hunt with big paper feathers. For anyone under 3, keep small things like acorns, candy and dried beans out of the games: they are a choking risk.

What games work for a big family with all ages?

Thankful A to Z (grown-ups help with the sounds), Pumpkin Bowling, Thanksgiving Charades with pictures for the non-readers, and One-Line Story. Pair a little one with a big one so every team has both.

Are Peabody's online games free?

Yes. They are free through the end of 2026, with no ads and no sign-up to start playing.

Does Peabody have a Thanksgiving game?

Not yet. The games to play at home are written out on this page.