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Thanksgiving Language Arts Printables

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There are lots of great language arts printables with a Thanksgiving theme, including lots of little books, writing activities and more. Let’s check out some Thanksgiving themed learning for the classroom or at home.

Fun a Day has a cute printable emergent reader Thanksgiving book (find more fall emergent readers books here), which features a turkey and different color words, so kids can color the bird appropriately on each page. 

Printablee has a collection of 10 different printable Thanksgiving stories for different grade levels, and A Little Pinch of Perfect has a short printable book with pilgrims and Native Americans that could be the beginning of telling the Thanksgiving story.

Kindergarten Smarts has a printable sight word book with a holiday twist. There are a few different variations on the book for different readers, and you can get them from her Teachers Pay Teachers site.

Get printable Thanksgiving themed writing prompts with a coloring element at 123 Homeschool 4 Me. These pages include things like what kids would do if they had a pet turkey at Thanksgiving, what they know about the pilgrims and their favorite Thanksgiving foods. This reminds me of an activity the first or second graders always do at my daughter’s school, where they imagine a turkey has to disguise itself to avoid being eaten, then they draw it and write about it.

The Keeper of the Memories has fun color by sight word printables with a turkey, pie and cornucopia on them so kids can practice basic words while they color.

The Thanksgiving word search from PJs and Paint would be better for kids who’ve moved beyond emergent reading since it has several long words, but for kids who love word searches this is a good one.

Looking for more Thanksgiving learning activities? Check out my collection of Thanksgiving math activities.

Have you read?

Book Review: The Festival of Lights

As if Diwali weren’t colorful and fun enough, The Festival of Lights: A Lift-the-flap Diwali Celebration by Namita Moolani Mehra, illustrated by Darshika Varm, makes it even more fun to read about with flaps and things to lift and pull to see more information or details in the illustrations. 

The book is a story about a family getting ready for Diwali and what happens on the different days of the five-day celebration. There’s cleaning, shopping, crafting, food preparation and getting the home altar ready for the big day. 

It covers decorating the outside of the house with rangoli, diyas and lanterns, buying sweets to share with family and friends, the sights and scents of the mandir (home temple), getting dressed up in new fancy clothes, the story of Diwali and celebrations with relatives.  

Flaps (there are more than 140 in all) give you vocabulary words for different foods and definitions, as well as fun things like what’s inside the shopping basket or where the cat is hanging out. They also help illuminate the story of Diwali, which is the triumph of good over evil as Lord Ram defeated the demon Ravana to save his wife, Sita. 

This pretty and colorful book helps kids understand what Diwali is and how it is celebrated, regardless of whether they practice it at home. This would be a nice book to keep in a classroom (it’s rated for kids ages 3-7) or to have at home to teach kids about Diwali even if it’s not something you celebrate. Where I live there are a lot of people from India so we are probably exposed to Diwali more than some other regions of America, but it’s a nice holiday to know about wherever you live. 

Combine with the book Diwali and check out some fun lantern crafts and printables for kids to round out your experience. 

About the book: 24 pages, hardcover, published 2025 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail prices $22.99.

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