If you’re anything like me, thanksgiving toddler activities are the hardest to plan. After Halloween, I am dreaming of Christmas…but these 4 Thanksgiving toddler activities will be a hit with your preschooler, so be sure to try them out before you begin your Christmas crafts this year!
1 Build a Turkey: Thanksgiving Sensory Bin for Toddlers
If you’ve followed along for any time now, you know that I LOVE sensory bins! (So much I even created this free Sensory bin guide for you so you can love them too!) So you know I had to create a Thanksgiving Sensory bin for my toddlers!
This Build a Turkey sensory bin has been a HUGE hit! The setup was SUPER easy, and it has gotten hours of play time!
Here’s how you can re-create it yourself:
Base: Kidney beans and pinto beans. I personally love this mix because of the dimension it adds…but if I could only choose one, I’d choose kidney beans. Bonus: They’re easy to clean up too!
Fillers: Craft feathers (from the dollar tree), Large googly eyes, orange pom pom beaks!
Scoops: Wooden scoops, squeezy scoops
Turkey Body: We used glass yogurt jars. Baby food jars or small mason jars would work perfectly as well!
Funnels: Funnels are so much fun for toddlers to explore. Ours are unused pump flanges…they’re seriously the perfect size for toddlers!
I set up this bin just as it is pictured, with a pre-made turkey. This made it really easy for my toddler to know exactly what she was supposed to do!
2 T is for Turkey a Thanksgiving Fine Motor Activity
Dot markers and dot stickers are my secret toddler weapon! I love how my toddlers slow down and have such a deep concentration as they try to line up the dot perfectly! My youngest has been doing these activities since she was about 12 months old, but around 16 months or so I saw this concentration develop, especially with the dot stickers. These activities are perfect for building those fine motor skills even for the younger toddlers!
You can get these turkey printables here!
3 Handmade Placemats: Thanksgiving Crafts for Preschoolers
I feel like Handmade placemats is the classic that I tend to forget. But it’s a classic for a reason, so don’t forget to include it in your November activity list!
There are so many options for handmade placemats: weaved paper, stickers, table setting.
We made ours on cardstock, and I laminated them once they were dry! (Here’s my favorite at-home laminator and laminator sheets. I use this thing ALL the time!)
4 Toddler Turkey Craft made with Nature
This was such a fun activity! We started by going on a toddler-led nature walk. (I have a scavenger hunt freebie here) We collected all different kinds of leaves on our walk. Then we used a brown leaf to create our turkey body, and colored leaves to create our feathers. We added some googly eyes, feet, and a beak and ended up with the cutest Turkey craft!
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