Thanksgiving Sensory Activities

October 28, 2023 by Sarah White Leave a Comment

There are so many fun sensory experiences that come around Thanksgiving, with lots of things to see, smell and touch. These Thanksgiving themed sensory activities are fun to do at home or with small groups of kids.

Of course the dominant smell/taste of Thanksgiving you probably think of is pumpkin, and I found recipes for pumpkin fluff from Teaching Mama, pumpkin play dough from Wildy Wonders, and pumpkin slime from My Joy Filled Life.

You can use that scented play dough to do pumpkin pie fraction math, with printables from Fantastic Fun and Learning. Or make a turkey with your dough and other things you might have lying around like feathers, eyes and little bits of foam or other found objects. Learn how in this post from Mama Papa Bubba.

Get more pumpkin-specific sensory experiences and ideas here: pumpkin sensory activities. (This post was more for Halloween but pumpkin endures through the seasons, doesn’t it?

If you’re not a pumpkin fan you can try apple pie playdough instead, which uses apple pie spice instead of pumpkin spice. This recipe is from The Best Ideas for Kids, but you can use your favorite playdough recipe and add food coloring and spices of whatever sort you like to make a fall playdough.

Another great scent and sensory experience of the season comes form cranberries. You can make a cranberry-scented playdough with this recipe from Learn Play Imagine, or do some cranberry STEM and sensory activities with these ideas from Little Bins for Little Hands.

There are lots of different possibilities for making sensory bins with seasonally appropriate fillers like corn (I Can Teach My Child) or Indian corn (Still Playing School), brown paper (Mrs. Plemon’s Kindergarten) or even fall-colored pasta (Not Quite Super Mom).

Some fun things to add to your fall or Thanksgiving sensory bins include measuring cups, fake pumpkins, acorns, real or fake leaves, little cups, etc.

Are you looking for the best sensory toys and activities for your child? Explore our comprehensive resources to enhance your child’s sensory play and development. Check out our curated Amazon Idea List featuring top-rated sensory toys and items, and don’t miss our expertly written articles on sensory activities. Start creating fun and educational sensory experiences today!

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Thanksgiving Math Activities

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Book Review: The No-Brainer Brain Explainer

Human brains are pretty amazing, allowing us to think, feel, create, communicate, move and more. But humans aren’t the only animals with cool brains, as Crab Museum explains in the book The No-Brainer Brain Explainer (illustrated by Bruno Valasse).

This book, aimed at kids in grades 1-4, is colorful and silly but also educational about how brains actually work, with billions of neurons sending electrical and chemical signals around the body.

“Everything we think, feel and experience comes from an electrical relay race, with neurons passing chemical batons to each other,” the book says. “The constant chatter of billions of brain cells creates your entire world.”

The book compares the brains of mammals to those of crabs (the book is “written” by a crab after all) and notes that crabs have fewer neurons and of course are much smaller, but they have separate parts of their brains that control their eyes and their legs. Crabs are also capable of remembering things, using tools and solving puzzles.

Some animals’ brains allow them to know more about their world in different ways from humans, such as spiders being sensitive to vibrations in their webs and catfish having an amazing sense of taste, with taste sensors all over their bodies.

It notes that 95 percent of brain activity goes toward things we do unconsciously, like breathing, walking and catching a ball flying toward us. It also talks about dreams, memory, how our emotions try to predict the future, where brains came from and fun facts about brains. For example, did you know a sperm whale is believed to have the biggest brain of any creature that’s even lived? Their brains weigh 18 pounds, compared to just 2.5 pounds for humans.

Information on what creatures have the smallest brains, the toughest brains, the most brains and those who actually eat their own brains will delight kids (and maybe gross them out a little bit). They’ll also enjoy learning about the mycelium network of fungi, which is like a brain without a body, and slime molds, which are like a brain without a brain.

It ends talking about why human brains are so special because we’ve found ways to work together, communicate and build communities on a scale bigger than any other animal.

Kids and adults alike will enjoy this colorful, silly and informational book about brains!

About the book: 64 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $19.99.

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