Take a little break from football and liven up the celebration with a few Thanksgiving games. You’ll work off some of those calories (especially the pie) and the kids will have fun, too! While there are hundreds of on-line games, I think Thanksgiving is for interaction and making memories and not sitting in front of the computer. Most of the games I list involve lots of interaction and laughs.
( Well, I added a few on-line ones, if you insist.)
1.Turkey Feather Toss: I saw this idea in the Family Fun magazine a couple of years ago. Take a feather and tape a weight (my husband used a long nail) to the quill end. This gives it some weight and stability.
Nail taped to base of feather.
Place a basket or container some distance away and see if kids can toss the feather into it. Have several baskets or containers and place a different value on each one. Take turns and keep score! We used turkey feathers, as we have wild turkeys around us. If you don’t have hunters in your family, buy pheasant feathers at Michael’s Crafts.
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- Wow! Pretty Close!
He made it!
2. Pin the wattle or feather on the Turkey: Thanksgiving version of the old standby: Pin the Tail on the Donkey! Materials: blindfold, cut-out of wattle or feather & large drawing of a turkey.
3. Corn Pitching: The idea of this games is to take beans, dried corn or candy corn and pitch them into containers of different point value. Play several rounds and keep score.
4. Corn Hunt or Turkey Hunt: Hide candy corn or small sticker pictures of turkeys in various places throughout your home. When found, they put them in their bag. The one with the most, wins!
5. Odds or Evens: Kids take turns with another partner and place beans or dried corn in their hand behind their back. They say, “Odds or Evens”. If the other child guesses correctly, they get the beans. Then, it is the other person’s turn. The one with the most beans after an amount of turns, wins!
6. Where is the silly Turkey? I have a silly looking little stuffed animal turkey that I have out each year. The kids like to hide this turkey in the room. For little kids, I like to hide it with a little piece sticking out so it is easier to spot. Tell them “hot” if they are close and “cold” if they are far away. If you don’t have a little turkey, use a sticker picture of a turkey or any other object.
He found it!
5. Thanksgiving Basket Upset: Put chairs in a circle and give everyone a “Thanksgiving name such as: pumpkin, turkey, dressing, pilgrim, ship, etc. Caller calls two of the Thanksgiving related names and they need to switch chairs. Caller tries to get to one of the chairs before the others. The one left becomes the caller.
6. Pumpkin Roll: Take a small pumpkin and roll with either hands, broom or wooden spoon. You need a long area to roll so clear an area or do this outside if weather permits. Have some bottles along the way that they have to knock down with the pumpkin before going for the finish line. Take turns and time each one or do as a family relay.
7. What’s missing? Place candy corn, small picture of objects, little turkey, small boat, pilgrims or other Thanksgiving objects on a tray (10-20 items). Have them look carefully at the tray. Take one item away and see if they can tell which one is missing. Another variation for families is to write all the objects they can remember being on the tray. If you have several families, have each family work together as a team or work in partners.
8. Thanksgiving Printable and Computer games: These are not group interactive, but if you need them, here they are! http://www.dltk-holidays.com/thanksgiving/games.htm
9. Spoons: Play the regular game of Spoons, but substitute paper turkey drumsticks on paint stirrers with Thanksgiving pictures on them or plastic spoons with a turkey drawn on them.
10. Lots of printable games: Bingo, Memory, Dominos, Word Mining, and Word Scrambles are available http://holidays.kaboose.com/thanks-games.html and www.733blog.com
11. Fun group Thanksgiving Games: check the many games on Familyfun. http://spoonful.com/thanksgiving/thanksgiving-games-pg
12. Thanksgiving Scattergories: Divide into two teams. Give a category such as “Fall Words”, “Thanksgiving food”, “Names of Trees” , “Fruits and Vegetables” etc. Each team member can generate words and the recorder writes them on a team list. Score a point for each answer that is not listed on the other team’s sheet.
13. Turkey Shoot: Get out those pom-pom shooters and have a turkey hunt. One person is the turkey and kids take turns trying to hit the “turkey” using pom-poms or mini-marshmallows in their shooters. The turkey can either stand still for young shooters or move if you want it more challenging. Add a “turkey hat” for the one being hunted. ( I saw these at Target) For pom-pom shooters go here.
14. Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt: Weather permitting, this is a great outdoor game. Give each family a list of fall items to find. If indoors, hide doubles (or enough for each family unit) of items in different rooms and give a list of the hidden items to find. Stickers of different objects are easy to use in this game.
Here’s the 15+….
15+ Minute-To-Win-It Games: Many of these games could be altered to the Thanksgiving theme. Check them out at ministry-to-children.com or happyhomefairy.com and summercampprogramdirector.com Lots of good ideas!
Hope this post is a good reference for some good old family fun!
Check out my other posts on Thanksgiving crafts and Thanksgiving place setting under the heading of “holidays” on the top menu or click here.
Give thanks to the Lord for He is good!
Phyllis
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