Thanksgiving Counting Activities for Preschoolers

Use the holidays to practice counting with your children using our Thanksgiving Counting Activities for Preschoolers and watch them get excited about concepts like number recognition, one-to-one correspondence, number sense, ten frames, and of course, the big celebration. Use the excitement of the holiday to your full advantage, and incorporate it into learning as much as you can! For your older kids, you will also love our Thanksgiving Writing Prompts. 

Food for Thanksgiving Counting Activities for Preschoolers

Count the People. We all know this holiday in the United States is largely about food. Bountiful food. In order to know how much food you need for a crowd, you will need to know how many people are coming. Have your child count the people who will be at your Thanksgiving feast. You can do this in one of a few ways. 1) Create a collage of pictures of all the people who will be there. Screenshots of pictures relatives have shared on social media will make this fast and easy. 2) Write out the names of each person who will be coming and have your child count the names. 3) Count on your fingers together. 

Count Menu Items. Together with your preschooler, make a list of all the food you usually have for the big Thanksgiving meal. Draw pictures together on a blank piece of paper, or just make tally marks as you go through the list on a big whiteboard or paper.

Count Pie or desserts. Count the pies you have planned. Count the pies that you have baked by naming them and counting on your fingers. Once the pies are sliced, have your child help count the number of pie pieces you have.

Counting Blessings with Your Kids

My favorite thing about the Thanksgiving season is that it is the time we focus on what we’ve been given. Count your blessings together! Try one of these activities. 

Make a Blessings Chain. Using Fall-themed colors, make a construction paper chain together. On each strip of paper, write one thing that is a blessing in your child’s life. Include all of your children and both parents in the activity. Staple the pieces in loops connected together. Count the chain links. Add more each day leading up to Thanksgiving and have your preschooler count again. At your Thanksgiving dinner, have every person at the table remove a chain piece and read the blessing. 

Name your Blessings. If you want to keep things simple, count with your fingers, use tally marks or use a ten frame to make a mark for each blessing your child names and count them together. 

Draw or Make a Poster. Have your child make a drawing of all of his or her favorite blessings. Count the blessings that he or she has drawn. Hang it up as a memorial.

Cute and Crafty Thanksgiving Counting Activities for Preschoolers

These fun Thanksgiving activities will help your child learn different ways of counting and playing with numbers.

Add feathers to a turkey drawing or turkey craft and count all the turkey feathers together. Once you know the number of feathers on the turkey body, add more or make another turkey. Keep making or drawing turkeys until your child is tired of the game.

Cut a paper pumpkin pie into pieces and count the pieces. This is great for your child’s fine motor skills, and there is no need for perfection. Glue white pom poms to each piece to represent a cool whip blob. Count the cool whip blobs. 

Have your child draw a picture of your family and count family members together. 

Go on a walk in your neighborhood and count the Thanksgiving decorations you see as you walk. If you have the time, organize a turkey hunt in your neighborhood. Pass out printed turkeys to each neighbor and ask them to tape the turkey somewhere that is visible to the street. This could be in a window, on a porch or door, or on a garden flag or sign. Maybe it could even be taped onto a trash can. All the children in the neighborhood can go on a turkey hunt as they walk and count the turkeys as they go. 

Visit a farm and count turkeys. If you can find a local farm that allows or encourages visitors, ask to come for a tour and count the turkeys and other animals as you go to find the correct number. Ask the farmer if you got it right! 

Use our Thanksgiving Counting Book of Gnomes to work on counting with your child. You can even use many of the pages in the book to do the activities I’ve described in this post. This book is such a fun way to practice counting together.

While working through the book and down the list of activities we’ve suggested your child will practice one-to-one correspondence, number words, number shape, writing each number, counting, naming “how many” and how to organize counting using ten frames. Add little Thanksgiving-themed chart stickers Thanksgiving-themed chart stickers or small pieces of play dough to the objects on each page of the book for even more learning. 

Make a Thanksgiving Sensory Bin and count the different items you stash in it. 

More Counting Activities for Preschoolers 

Math activities do not have to be hard or complicated! Try one of our other Thanksgiving Printables with your preschool child. As a homeschooling preschool teacher, we want to make this job as easy as possible for you!

Fall Counting Book for Preschoolers. Many of our counting books like this one feature adorable gnomes that will make your preschool laugh, and enjoy counting with the gnomes.

Thanksgiving Coloring Pages. Beautiful and simple coloring pages all of your children will enjoy. This is a great way to keep your kids occupied on Thanksgiving day while you are busy in the kitchen.

With just a few of these counting activities in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, your child’s math skills will blossom! You will have so much fun with these ideas.

Download your Gnome Thanksgiving Preschool Counting Book

Our Thanksgiving themed counting book features adorable gnomes and all things counting and numbers, to commemorate this holiday. Your child will learn to count to twenty, recognize numbers and number words to twenty, practice one-to-one correspondence, complete ten-square activities, and more!

To download the Gnome Thanksgiving Preschool Counting Book, simply add it to your cart and then checkout. **Upon checkout, you will be added to my Weekly Newsletter list.**