Thanksgiving is a wonderful opportunity to incorporate stories, language, and creativity into the classroom or at home. Beyond the traditions of family gatherings and shared meals, the holiday also offers a rich opportunity to nurture children’s reading and writing skills. With themed activities and resources, literacy practice can feel less like work and more like a class or family celebration.
From word games and reading passages to hands-on crafts with a literacy twist, Thanksgiving resources help children build vocabulary, strengthen comprehension, and practice writing in meaningful contexts. Whether you’re planning a lesson, setting up literacy centers, or looking for fun reading activities to do at home, there are plenty of engaging tools to choose from.
In what follows, I share some helpful Thanksgiving literacy resources that teachers and parents can use to inspire a love of reading during this festive season. The best part is that none of these resources will cost you a dime or require you to jump through hoops to access them.
1. Thanksgiving Reading Passages
A set of Thanksgiving-themed passages with built-in comprehension questions is a great way to bring seasonal fun into literacy time. These short stories cover everything from turkeys and harvest themes to silly holiday mishaps, giving students something festive to read while still working on skills like sequencing, vocabulary, and inference.
What makes these passages especially useful is that they don’t feel like just another worksheet. Your kids will enjoy the humor and holiday context, while teachers and parents get easy access to ready-made comprehension practice.
2. Fall Wagon Word-Building Pumpkins
Pumpkin-themed word building activities are a fun way to keep literacy practice engaging during the fall season. With lettered pumpkins that students can move around and arrange, kids get hands-on practice with phonics, spelling, and word recognition. It’s a playful twist that reinforces core literacy skills while also bringing a touch of seasonal excitement to the classroom.
Teachers and parents can grab a free printable set of fall wagon word-building pumpkins from Literacy Learn. These types of small-group activities are great for word centers, or even partner games where kids race to build the longest or silliest word that they can think up.
3. Thanksgiving Comprehension Worksheets
If you’ve ever handed out a worksheet and watched kids sigh like you just asked them to do their taxes, you’ll be happy to know these are different. The stories are short, seasonal, and interesting. You will experience turkeys, pilgrims, and the occasional Thanksgiving disaster. Each passage comes with questions that sneakily build comprehension skills like sequencing and vocabulary while kids are caught up in the holiday fun.
They’re easy to slide into small-group lessons, independent reading time, or even as a quick homework task before the long weekend. A free collection of Thanksgiving reading comprehension worksheets is available at this site, giving you plenty of options to keep kids practicing without the usual groans.
4. Thankful Turkey Jar Craft
This project takes the “give thanks” theme and turns it into something tactile, heartfelt, and just a bit messy (in the best way possible). Kids will decorate a jar to make it look like a turkey, then write or braille things they’re thankful for on popsicle sticks. It’s a craft that’s part art, part writing, and all about gratitude. The turkey design usually gets them excited more than a plain “write-on-paper” task.
If you want to try this kind of gratitude craft, check out the directions for making a Thankful Turkey Jar with materials like popsicle sticks, paper (or braille label paper), googly eyes, textured ribbon, and something to decorate the jar. It’s perfect for home or classroom, works for kids with different abilities, and becomes a meaningful display of what matters to them.
5. Thanksgiving Word Puzzles
Thanksgiving word searches are a simple way to mix holiday fun with literacy practice. Students get to review seasonal vocabulary terms like “turkey,” “harvest,” and “thankful” while strengthening spelling and word recognition. These puzzles are easy to use across grade levels and give everyone a chance to succeed and get immersed in the season.
What makes them especially useful is how they can kick off a discussion. Once students find the words, you can pause to talk about their meaning, ask for examples, or connect them back to holiday traditions. A ready-made set of Thanksgiving word search puzzles is available in this collection, making it simple to start those conversations without extra prep.
6. Feed the Turkey Sight Words
Sight words might seem small, but they’re a big deal when it comes to building confident readers. Kids who can recognize words like “the”, “and”, “you”, and “said” instantly don’t get stuck on every line that they may come across. This experience can make a learner’s reading flow so much smoother and lead to greater retention and fluency. This Thanksgiving activity takes that important skill and wraps it up in something playful and seasonal.
The idea is simple: students “feed” the turkey as they practice sight words. It feels like a game, but they’re really laying the groundwork for stronger reading fluency. This is the kind of activity that works well in small groups, centers, or even as a quick warm-up before a lesson. Make sure to use the Feed the Turkey sight word game if you want to add a little holiday fun to your literacy practice.
7. Turkey Beginning Sounds Activity
Helping kids tune into the very first sounds in words is one of the most critical steps in learning to read. Activities that build phonemic awareness give them the tools to break words apart, connect letters with sounds, and eventually decode more complex text. This turkey-themed game does precisely that, but in a way that feels playful and light.
Instead of drilling, kids get to sort, match, and identify beginning sounds while working with bright, seasonal visuals. It’s the kind of literacy work that feels more like fun but still lays down the foundation they’ll need to become confident and fluent readers. Perfect for centers, small groups, or even just a quick activity to bring some Thanksgiving energy into the classroom.
8. Paper Plate Turkey Craft
Sometimes the best literacy activities start with something as simple as a paper plate and a few feathers. This turkey craft isn’t just fun; it’s flexible enough to support a whole range of literacy skills. As kids cut, glue, and decorate, they’re also learning to follow directions, describe what they’re making, and talk through choices like colors and shapes.
What makes it really useful is how easy it is to adapt. You can have students label the parts of the turkey to build vocabulary, use the finished craft as a writing prompt, or even turn it into a phonics game by brainstorming words that begin with the same sounds. It’s a playful way to bring art and literacy together, while giving kids a project they’ll be proud to take home.
About the author:
Cris McKee holds a B.S. in Speech and Auditory Learning from SUNY Fredonia and an M.S. in Special Education from Mount Saint Mary’s College. With over twenty-five years of experience as a classroom teacher, Cris has dedicated a career to empowering students of all abilities through education. As a Regional Chapter Vice President of DKG Society International, Cris advocates for advancing women educators and fostering global educational excellence. Beyond the classroom, Cris has worked closely with food security-challenged families, gaining unique insights into the broader challenges that affect student success. A firm believer that literacy is one of the most powerful tools in the fight against poverty, Cris continues to champion education as a pathway to equity and opportunity.
