The month of November can seem to fly by when it comes to teaching, and Thanksgiving sometimes doesn’t get any attention in the math classroom. This year I’ve decided to add a little bit more Thanksgiving cheer to my class, and I want to share some of the ideas with you. This time of year is a time of reflection and gratitude, so I thought my students might be thankful to have some Thanksgiving fun. Also, I am going to have them do some reflection on why they should be thankful for specific math topics.
Today we’ll look at some specific activities for math and Thanksgiving, as well as some general ideas that you can add to whatever you’re doing. These are great ways to deal with random times during the holiday week, or to bring in holiday fun to the regularly scheduled math. Just remember that even if you’re working with junior high or high school students, they still like silly and fun. They can be more engaged around the holidays if you’re willing to add a little whimsy to your lesson plans.
The list of Thanksgiving activities and ideas:
- I am thankful for math because …
- Coloring Pages and clipart
- Thanksgiving themed games
- Thanksgiving themed word problems
- Planning a Thanksgiving dinner
- Coordinate graphing with Thanksgiving pictures
- Pi related activities with some pie for the class
I am thankful for math because …
As math teachers we always want to make the learning relevant for students, but sometimes we forget to have students really think about where the math fits in their lives. Since Thanksgiving is a time for reflection, this “I’m thankful for math” activity gets students to reflect on the significance of math.
Here are some examples of what students might write:
I am thankful for math because…
…it makes me think.
…without it our houses would fall over.
…it’s my favorite class in school.
…it teaches me to solve problems.
You can download this cute form that I use with students. When you collect these forms, they can easily be displayed them in classroom or in the hall outside of your classroom. What a great way to add a little holiday spirit and have students think about the relevance of math in their lives.
Coloring Pages and clipart
It’s pretty easy to incorporate Thanksgiving clipart or math coloring pages during the month of November. You can use pilgrims, pies, or cornucopias among other Thanksgiving themed pictures. If you’re looking for free clipart to add to your work, you can find it at openclipart.org or pixabay.com.
I’ve created a coloring page activity that reviews one step equations. It’s no prep and you can just print it out and have it ready for your 6th, 7th, or 8th grade students. I use it for a warm-up activity the week of Thanksgiving and kids really like it. It’s a small amount of coloring- just enough to give students a brain break and have a little fun. Try it out with your class.
Also, I use an order of operations coloring page. Students can’t get enough practice with the order of operations, and this gives them a little fun with it. For my advanced classes I use this for their homework the week before Thanksgiving.
These Thanksgiving coloring activities, plus ALL of our Thanksgiving themed resources are available for a discount here: Thanksgiving Math Activities Bundle.
Thanksgiving math games
We use a lot of games in my class, and Thanksgiving is no exception. Students and teachers get a little antsy during the holidays and review games work great as sponge activities. Maybe you have a few minutes after a benchmark test or school assembly. You can just have some of these games handy for those types of situations.
My favorite games to use are bingo, mazes, and knockout games. I’ve made a few activities that I use with my math lab class because they need to review a lot of the fundamentals. It’s easier to get them to buy-in when we’re playing a game. Especially when Thanksgiving fever has set in.
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Whole class games are also a great way to keep students on track during the crazy times that can come up during the week before Thanksgiving. This knockout game features fun Thanksgiving graphics and middle school math review problems. Students choose an image which then reveals a problem. I have all students answer each question and keep track of their own points. This game has questions about equations, proportions, area and radius of circles, rate of change and initial value, story problems, sales tax and some fractions. It’s a great way to keep students on track during sponge time or for the day before Thanksgiving.
Another fun game that kids love to play is bingo. I just used this Thanksgiving combining like terms bingo with my math class the other day. They loved it! They each used their whiteboards to answer the problems and it gave me a chance to see how they were doing. Then, I could quickly model those concepts that they needed more review with. This game works well with an on grade level class or in a math lab type class.
Thanksgiving themed word problems
Most topics or concepts that we teach have word problems. Some of the middle grades topics that lean that way are Pythagorean Theorem, proportions, Tax and Discounts, fractions, area, circumference, systems of equations, unit rate, and so many more. Most likely you’ll be teaching something around Thanksgiving that has some time of word problems. 
Thanksgiving can easily be connected with Thanksgiving dinner. Or, you can use pies and their connection to pi. People travel a lot over the holidays, so that gives you travel themes. You can be a little goofy and use turkey characters in your stories. There’s a lot to work with related to Thanksgiving, and it doesn’t take away from the math. This simple nod to Thanksgiving can make the story in story problems just a little more interesting for students.
This math problem from my Thanksgiving Review game shows an example of using Thanksgiving mealtime for math practice.
Planning a Thanksgiving dinner
This link will take you to a lesson plan where students plan a Thanksgiving dinner. That post includes a worksheet called “Planning a Thanksgiving Meal”. That planning sheet walks students through choosing between two options to calculate the best value for different dishes. This activity gives students a real world view of math.
You could add linear equation modeling related to Thanksgiving dinner planning. Give students different situations where they have to create a linear equation that models Thanksgiving dinner planning. Then they can run some different scenarios to see how much dinner would cost depending on how many people are coming. Students love this type of activity because they get to practice being adults.
Coordinate graphing with Thanksgiving pictures
Understanding how to place coordinates on a graph shows up a lot in middle school math and beyond. I give my students lots of opportunities to practice plotting points with pictures. They like it because they actually make a picture with their math. We hang some of our work on the wall for display. I call it the Wall of Fame and it shows their best work. Coordinate graphing practice works perfectly for a Thanksgiving acivity because you can find coordinate graphing pictures of turkeys and more (find some here).
I highly recommend this idea for homework or for fast finishers during the month of November. Students can easily pick it up and work on it in little chunks of time. Also, at the end you have some seasonal artwork for the class.
Pi related activities with some pie for the class
Pi related activities don’t just have to be for Pi Day. Thanksgiving is the pie holiday, so why not add some pi themed activities. If you have a small class like my math lab you could even bring some pie as a treat. If you need to review area and circumference of a circle, this time of year works great. I use a few different activities and games to review pi with pie.
Try one thing
This time of year we can get a little burned out, but by adding a little spice and whimsy we can get some excitement back into our class. Our students will be thankful for our nod to the holidays and it helps us remember that math is fun! You don’t have to try and incorporate all of these ideas. Just try one of them and see how your students react. My students always tell me how glad they are that we played a game or completed an activity. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and share some fun Thanksgiving moments with your math students!
To find four of the low-prep, engaging activities I shared in this post, check out this discount bundle: “Thanksgiving Math Activity Pack.”
Thanks so much for reading. Until next time.
