Materials
None

Activity
Play a classic game of “Hide and Seek,” but call it a turkey hunt.

1. One player covers his eyes and counts to a number while all the turkeys hide.
2. When he reaches the number, he uncovers his eyes and tries to find all the turkeys!

Variation
Only one turkey hides. When the first player is far away from the hidden turkey, everyone else makes quiet gobbling sounds. As he gets closer to the turkey’s hiding location, everyone makes louder gobbling sounds until the hunter finds the Turkey.

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Materials
None

Activity
1. Sits everyone down in a circle.
2. The first person says, “I am sailing on the Mayflower, and I am taking…” [The first person then says something that starts with “A” like apples.]
3. The second person says, “I am sailing on the Mayflower, and I am taking…” [The second person then repeats what the first person said
and adds something that begins with “B.”]
4. The third person must remember what the first two people said
and then adds a “C” item.
5. Continue through the alphabet. If you complete the alphabet go through a second or third time, adding a new item at each letter to those previously stated before.
6. If a player can’t remember all the items, that player drops out,
until there is one player left. Award the winner!

Variation
The first player starts by saying, “At my Thanksgiving dinner I ate turkey.” Each adds a thanksgiving food. In this variation, the items do not need to follow the alphabet.

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Materials
This is a high energy game adapted for the Holiday. All that is needed is an open space where kids and youth can run around.

Set-up
Have kids get in groups of three. Two of the kids hold hands so that there is an open space in the middle btween them, as a hollow tree. The remaining participant stands in the center between the arms and is the “Turkey in a tree”.

Game Play
There are three options that participants must respond to in this game:
1. If HUNTER is called, all the trees remain where they are and the turkeys must flee and duck into another tree. A tree may only contain one turkey. The last turkey to find a tree to hide in is eliminated from the game along with the tree.
2. If LIGHTNING is called, all turkeys remain in their positions and the trees must change position and partners. The last two people to position themselves holding hands around a turkey are eliminated.
3. if EARTHQUAKE is called, everyone, both turkeys and trees, must change positions and find new partners. Turkeys can become trees and vice-versa as long as there are new groups of three. As with the other options, the last group to form is eliminated.

Continue the game until there is only one one group of three remaining and give them a prize.

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Materials
Instead of a twister game sheet, cut Thanksgiving shapes from construction paper and use sticky-tack to adhere them to the floor. Make a twister spinner that includes right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot and another that contains the various Thanksgiving symbols.

Some optional symbols are:
Autumn Leaf, Corn, Cornucopia, Cranberries, Family, Mayflower ship, Pie, Pilgrim, Plymouth Rock, Pumpkin, Puritans, Turkey, Indian

Activity
Play a game of Twister, but instead of colored dots use pictures of Thanksgiving items taped to the floor. Change the spinner to reflect the pictures. If you don’t have a spinner you can easily make one.

Variation
Instead of playing on an individual basis, divide the group into teams. The team with the last remaining members in the game wins.

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Materials
1. Bingo cards for each participant. Make Bingo cards using a grid of squares (5X5) and placing Thanksgiving related items in each square. Make each card different in the choice of items on it and the placement of the items.
2. Coins or markers to cover squares. You can also simply allow them to mark on the cards.
3. Bingo items in bag to pull out. Write them on small peices of paper or ping pong balls.

Activity
1. Play according to standard bingo rules.
2. Randomly draw the items from a bag and call them out..
3. The first person to get all of a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally yells out “Gobble, Gobble, Gobble,”

Possible Thanksgiving Bingo items:
1621, Autumn, Blessings, Corn, Cornucopia, Cranberry, Dinner, England, Fall, Family, Feast, Giblets, Gobble, God, Gravy, Harvest, Mayflower, New World, November, Pie, Pilgrim, Plymouth Rock, Pumpkin, Puritans, Stuffing, Thanks, Thursday, Turkey, Wampanoag Indians, wattle

Variation
Instead of words, you can also include photos of common objects associated with Thanksgiving and Harvest

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Materials
Large picture of a turkey. (If you aren’t very artistic, use an OHP and a coloring book image and project it on to a large piece of posterboard.) Leave a gap for a missing large tailfeather.

Activity
Blindfold one child / youth and have them attach the feather to the turkey. Play this game for Thanksgiving in the same way you would play “pin the tail on the donkey.” Instead of a donkey tail, pin a feather on the turkey where it would belong in the gap.

Variations
1. Pin the snood (the red flesh growth that hangs over the beak) on the turkey.
2. Pin the wattle on the turkey
3. Leave all the tailfeathers off the turkey and award every child who gets one near the right place.

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Materials
A variety of simple images. Images should be related to the Thanksgiving. Some possibilties include a turkey, a pumpkin, a pie, an indian, fall leaves, the Mayflower ship, pilgrims, etc. You can also use simple greeting cards for the design.

Activity
Form teams of six people. Instruct each team to sit in a line, one person behind another, and take a vow of silence for the duration of the game. Give the first person in each line a pencil and a piece of paper. Then show the last person in each line a simple image of an Thanksgiving object. That person must use his or her finger to draw the object on the back of the person in front of him or her. This continues until the drawing reaches the first person in line. He or she must draw it on the piece of paper. Have judges determine which team’s picture closest resembles the original picture. If time permits, play more rounds, letting team members change positions if they wish.

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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