Thanksgiving is just around the corner…YUM! And elementary school teachers everywhere are starting to think about turkey-time lesson plans. While history and social studies often take center stage, don’t forget about all the Thanksgiving math activities that are waiting to be feasted upon! With a little creativity, you can weave Thanksgiving themes into your math curriculum to create a super-fun and still educational experience for your students. Here are some of my favorite Thanksgiving math activities that are sure to make your students gobble with excitement!
1. Gratitude Graphing
Thanksgiving is a great time to help students reflect on things they’re grateful for. You can also use the list they generate during reflection as an opportunity to teach graphing. Have each student create a gratitude chart where they can list and sort the things they’re thankful for during the Thanksgiving season. Then students can sort all the things they are grateful for into different categories such as family, toys, school, etc., and use some newly acquired graphing skills to create a bar chart, scatter plot, or pie chart to represent their Thanksgiving-themed data.
2. A Feast of Turkey Math Task Cards
Thanksgiving is the perfect time to introduce turkey-themed task cards in your math lessons. These task cards make easy Thanksgiving math activities because they are literally available for almost every math concept on the curriculum calendar, so whatever topic you happen to be on during Turkey Days you’re all set. For added fun, decorate a table with Thanksgiving decorations and place each card on a plate. Let students move from seat to seat for a Mathsgiving Feast!
3. Baking Measurements
Thanksgiving is a time for baking…personally, this is my favorite part of Thanksgiving! A little baking lesson is the perfect opportunity to show students how math applies to everyday life with a lesson on measurements and converting measurements. Most classrooms don’t have access to an oven to truly bake, but you can definitely have students measure the ingredients to assemble a take-and-bake mason jar to be completed at home. You can also increase the difficulty level of these delicious Thanksgiving math activities by asking students to measure half or double of the recipes.
4. Plan Thanksgiving Dinner
This activity involves planning a “perfect” Thanksgiving. Provide each student with a budget of $100 and ask them to plan a shopping trip for the necessary items for their Thanksgiving meal. You can use printed ads from your local grocery store as shopping guides. Once they have their shopping list, show them how to calculate the cost of items added to the list by multiplying the number of each item that needs to be purchased. These fun Thanksgiving math activities incorporate multiplication, division, and problem-solving techniques that can be adjusted to the appropriate grade level. And it counts as a financial literacy budgeting lesson too!
5. Pumpkin Fractions
Nothing screams Thanksgiving like a pumpkin pie. To “cut” down on mundane fractions lessons, print out several images of pumpkin pies cut into different-sized slices. You can use these images to have all sorts of yummy fractional discussions such as comparing the size of ⅙ of a pie versus the size of 1/12 of a pie to see which is the greater fraction. You can also use the pumpkin pie images to teach students how to add or subtract fractional amounts of pie. You can ask questions like “what fraction of the pie is left if we have already eaten two slices?” or “What fraction of the pie is missing if we have only eaten one slice?” You can also have students create their own pumpkin pies to represent different fraction values or equations.
These five Thanksgiving math activities are just a start – there are endless ways to make holiday math more fun and engaging for your students. The key is to think outside the box and use seasonal themes to your advantage. Hopefully, these ideas will inspire you to get creative and make math a highlight of the Thanksgiving season. Happy Mathsgiving!
Looking for Thanksgiving books to read with your class, check out 10 Family-themed Chapter Books to Read Aloud.