Free Thanksgiving Worksheets for Kindergarten (Printable PDF)

How to use these Thanksgiving worksheets

Kindergartners do best with one or two short pages a day. Here's an easy way to spread the four pages over one week:

• Monday: Ten Frames. Read each number together, then color that many boxes, counting aloud. Start at the top-left box and fill the top row first, so your child sees 5 and 10 as landmarks.
• Tuesday: Color by Addition. Solve each sum first, then color. Keep 10 small counters nearby (beans, buttons or candy corn) so your child can build each problem before writing.
• Wednesday: Read and Color. Sound out each word slowly (c-a-t), blend it, then find the matching picture in the row. Point under each letter as you go.
• Thursday or Friday: I Am Thankful For... Draw first, then talk about the picture. The page starts the sentence ("I am thankful for"). Your child can tell you the ending for you to write, or sound it out on their own.

If your child has a busy week, do the thankful page on Thanksgiving Day itself and save it for the family. It also makes a lovely dated sample for your homeschool portfolio.

Make the pages more hands-on

• Count real things. Before the ten frame page, count acorns, leaves or dried corn kernels into an egg carton or muffin tin.
• Use dot markers. For the ten frames, a dot marker or bingo dauber is quicker and more fun than crayons.
• Act out the sums. Line up toy turkeys or paper feathers: 3 feathers plus 2 more is how many?
• Turn CVC words into a hunt. Write cat, hen, pig, sun and dog on sticky notes and hide them. Your child reads each one they find.
• Reuse the pages. Slip a page into a sheet protector and use a dry-erase marker so you can repeat it.

What these pages practice

Each page lines up with skills most kindergarten programs work on in the fall:

• Counting and cardinality: showing a number with objects on a ten frame (3, 5, 6, 8 and 10).
• Addition within 10: 16 small sums on the color-by-addition turkey.
• Phonics: reading short-vowel CVC words (cat, hen, pig, sun, dog) and matching them to pictures.
• Writing: drawing to share an idea, then writing or dictating a sentence.

If your child is still learning to count past 5, do the ten frame page together and skip the addition page for now. If they're cruising, ask them to write a second sentence on the thankful page.

Tips for Thanksgiving week

• Keep each page to 10 or 15 minutes, and stop while your child is still having fun.
• Print one copy per child, plus a spare for a younger sibling to color.
• Pair the pages with a Thanksgiving or fall picture book from the library, and ask your child to retell it: first, next, last.
• Cook together: measuring, counting and following steps in order all count as learning.