Thanksgiving Science Activities Your Students Will Love

Thanksgiving Science Activities Your Students Will Love

The days leading up to Thanksgiving can be tough for keeping students engaged. Hands-on, themed activities are a great way to mix holiday fun with meaningful learning.

November is a great time to bring a little seasonal holiday science fun into your classroom. Here are several unique festive Thanksgiving Science ideas that combine Thanksgiving holiday cheer with meaningful science learning. The first one is also a fantastic Thanksgiving craft for middle schoolers.

Thanksgiving Light-Up Cards

This is a perfect hands-on STEM Thanksgiving science activity that also teaches about electricity and, in particular, simple circuits. In this Thanksgiving craft, students make a card that lights up. A card is a lovely way to express gratitude, a key aspect of Thanksgiving. Students love the results and families are enchanted when these cards come home for Thanksgiving.

This is one example of the templates included with the Thanksgiving Light Up Cards.
Create a simple circuit with an LED. Press to make it light up!
Students can color the image to personalize it.

In this project, students design a Thanksgiving card with a working LED circuit. Along the way, they learn about electricity, simple circuits, energy transfer, and engineering design. This is a fantastic STEAM project as it has cross-curricular tie-ins between science and art.

Grab the Thanksgiving cards here:

Click the image to grab this unique Thanksgiving Science Activity

Or check out the bundle if you'd like a set of seasonal science activities for different times of the year. This bundle includes the Thanksgiving light up cards.

Check out this discounted bundle which contains fantastic and unique holiday season STEM projects

Free Pumpkin Word Search

If you need a no-prep thanksgiving science activity, Teacher Toy shop has got you covered! This free pumpkin word search is a seasonal activity that is great for early finishers, sub plans, or just a brain break before the holiday. It covers the parts of the pumpkin plant and is a great way to introduce or review flowering plant parts. Words covered include: root, leaf, tendril, fruit, male flower, female flower, stem, seeds, vine, pumpkin, pollinate, squash, vitamin A, bees, orange, curcurbita, North America, harvest, pepita, botany, and horticulture. As a bonus, there are extra hidden words to find that are not in the list. And the best part? It's completely free to download here:

This free pumpkin word search is great for introducing or reviewing the anatomy of a pumpkin plant.

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Additional Quick Thanksgiving Ideas

Thanksgiving is a holiday about giving thanks and eating. Do a sense of taste experiment. Here's a simple example.

With your class, read this NASA post about about how Thanksgiving has been celebrated in space over the years. There are fun photos of the celebrations in orbit! Research who will be celebrating Thanksgiving off Earth this year.

Gratitude writing exercise: ask students to reflect on one thing they're thankful for in science this school year. You'll be full of gratitude when you see their responses! (:

Other Fun and Unique Seasonal Science Activities

Looking for other ways to incorporate science into the classroom? Check out these blog posts:

St. Patrick's Day and Spring Science Activities

Printable Skeleton for Exploring Anatomy: Halloween Science Fun

Adding a little Thanksgiving spirit to your classroom doesn't have to be complicated. Whether you want a quick word search or a hands-on STEM project, these activities will keep students engaged in the time leading up to the Thanksgiving break. 

Happy Thanksgiving!