Thanksgiving Printables for the Table

If you’ve got a bunch of kids (or even just a couple of kids) coming over for Thanksgiving, you might need some things to entertain them while they wait for the food to be ready. These Thanksgiving printables are great to use at the table or whenever you need something to fill a little time, and honestly adults will like some of these, too.

Activity placemats are a classic for kids, and they’re great to have on hand for Thanksgiving if there’s a lull between courses or while kids wait for food to get passed to them.

Crafting a Lovely Life has a few different options including a coloring sheet and one for writing what you’re thankful for, but my favorite includes a space to draw your dinner, a word search, word scramble and game grids for tic-tac-toe.

Artsy Fartsy Mom has one with a turkey to color, a word search, a place to write what you are thankful for and some tic-tac-toe spaces as well.

And Skip to My Lou has a few different printable Thanksgiving placemat activity sheets. The one that caught my eye includes an I-spy, a color by number and other things to color, words to unscramble and more that’s sure to keep kiddos occupied.

If you like word games, try the Thanksgiving Mad Libs from Jac of All Things, or this Finish the Phrase game from The Crafting Chicks (one person decides what the answers are and everyone else tries to guess what they picked). Both kids and adults can challenge themselves to come up with something they are thankful for from A to Z with this printable from PJs and Paint.

Don’t miss the printable Thanksgiving jokes from Kristin Duke Photography. A sample: Why did they let the turkey join the band? Because he had the drumsticks!

Play Thanksgiving Bingo with the printable cards from One Creative Mommy, or try a Thanksgiving I Spy from The Best Ideas for Kids.

20 STEAM Educational Gift Ideas For Kids

Christmas STEAM Activities for Kids

Growing Up Ladybug and How to Become a Butterfly are both by Stepanka Sekaninova and illustrated by Linh Dao, and they came out at the same time and are on similar themes, so let’s look at them together.

Growing Up Ladybug is narrated by Mariella, a seven-spot ladybug. She talks about the parts of a ladybug, where they live, different kinds of ladybugs, why humans love them, their defenses against predators and the life cycle of a ladybug.

The drawings are cute if not always scientifically accurate, it’s not in such a way that’s likely to confuse kids (who probably already know that ladybug mamas don’t push their larval babies around in strollers, for instance.

It’s a good general description of the life cycle of a lady bug and why we like having them around.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Similarly, How to Become a Butterfly covers the life cycle of a butterfly, starting with caterpillars eating burning nettle leaves. (Here Amanda is the narrator.) The book talks about a few of the more than 18,000 daytime butterflies in the world as well as other creatures that live in the meadow (there’s that ladybug again, along with crickets, bees and other bugs).

It also covers some of the enemies of caterpillars like wasps and spiders, and the defenses that caterpillars use to try to prevent being eaten. It illustrates how caterpillars grow and change as they molt and prepare to pupate, and what a caterpillar looks like before and while it is forming its chrysalis. And while the book uses the word metamorphasis it doesn’t really talk about what happens between the caterpillar forming a chrysalis and the butterfly hatching.

This butterfly is a peacock butterfly, and once it hatches the book covers the parts of a butterfly and the life cycle. It also talks about nocturnal moths (though it says nocturnal butterflies are “usually called moths” when moths are actually a different species) and what butterflies do at night.

I’m maybe a little hard on this book because my daughter is a butterfly expert from way back, but it is still cute and good for the very basic basics of the butterfly life cycle.

Both books would be fun additions to your bookshelf for younger kids starting to learn about different animals or who have an interest in insects.

About the book: 32 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Albatross Media. Suggested retail price $16.95.

Have you read?

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