11 Thanksgiving Activities and Crafts Designed to Help You Teach Spanish

Thanksgiving crafts make wonderful tools to teach Spanish to our kids!

Are you interested in celebrating this holiday while practicing Spanish with your kids? If so, this blog post is perfect for you! Read on to discover fun activities and crafts to celebrate Thanksgiving and practice your Spanish.

Thanksgiving Words and Phrases In Spanish

In recent years, Thanksgiving has become more popular in Spanish-speaking countries. Although it is not a holiday in Latin America or Spain, there are words and expressions related to el día de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving) in Spanish.

Let’s review a few brief vocabulary lists of Thanksgiving in Spanish.

Thanksgiving (El día de Acción de Gracias)

English	Spanish
autumn	el otoño
harvest	la cosecha
natives	los nativos
November	Noviembre
pilgrims	los peregrinos
Thanksgiving	el día de Acción de Gracias
Thursday	el jueves
to give thanks	dar las gracias
tradition	el tratado
treaty	el tratado

Thanksgiving Traditions (Tradiciones de el día de Acción de Gracias)

English	Spanish
dinner	la cena
dinner with family	la cena con la familia
family	la familia
feast	el banquete
football	el fútbol americano
get together with the family	juntarse con la familia
parade	el desfile
prayer	la oración
to dine	cenar
to pray	orar

Thanksgiving Food 

English	Spanish
cranberry sauce	la salsa de arándanos
gravy	la salsa
green bean casserole	la cazuela de judías verdes/ejote
mashed potatoes	el puré de papas
pumpkin pie	el pay de calabaza
to bake	hornear
to enjoy	disfrutar
to roast	asar
turkey	el pavo
turkey stuffing	el relleno del pavo

Thanksgiving Crafts and Activities to Practice Spanish

All these crafts and activities are highly entertaining and full of Spanish content to practice with your kids. Let’s get inspired! 

Crafts and Activities for Kids Ages 3 to 5 

1. And the Turkey? (¿Y el Pavo?)

What do you need?

• ¿Y el pavo? PDF template 
• Markers, crayons or colored pencils

Think “Where’s Waldo” but instead of Waldo, the goal is to find a turkey in a sea of animals, people, and objects. To make it more entertaining and educational, there’s a list of Thanksgiving-related objects in Spanish to search for. 

2. Giant Memory Game: What Do You Eat On Thanksgiving? (Juegos de memoria: ¿qué comes en el día de Acción de Gracias?)

What do you need?

• Soft cardboard cut into squares, no smaller than 10×10 
• Square pieces of paper just a little smaller than the cardboard ones
• Markers and crayons 

Ask the kids what they eat on Thanksgiving and make a list. Have them draw one item per paper square and then paste them on the cardboard. 

Mix them up, put them on the floor face-down, and it’s time to play! Write the names of the food in Spanish in the cards and repeat them aloud when playing memory and searching for matching pairs. 

3. Run, turkey, run! (¡Corre, pavo, corre!)

What do you need?

• A copy of Run, Turkey, Run! by Diane Mayr

Practicing Spanish with your children while reading books is a great idea! The twist in this lesson is to tell the story in Spanish and teach new words.

The story in the book is so simple that translating it isn’t hard at all! Tell the story in Spanish and show the students the pictures. Alternatively, read the story in English, and select a few words to teach in Spanish. 

Crafts and Activities for Kids Ages 6 to 12

4. Alphabet Soup (Sopa de letras) 

What do you need?

• PDF template 
• Markers, crayons or colored pencils

Use our word search template for a quick review with your kids. The goal is to find all the Spanish vocabulary words related to Thanksgiving. 

5. Thanksgiving Bingo (Lotería del Día de Acción de Gracias)

• PDF template 
• Beans, corn kernels or balls of china paper

La lotería is a form of bingo. It is a fun game to play with family, friends, and classmates.

Download our PDF with the templates for the cartoncillos de lotería (lottery cards). Whoever fills their lottery card first wins and has to yell ¡Lotería!

6. Crossword (Crucigrama)

What do you need?

• PDF template 
• Markers, crayons or colored pencils

Crosswords are easy to play and are a great exercise to remember newly acquired vocabulary and meanings. The goal here is to read the hints (English words) and write the words in Spanish. 

7. Family Traditions and Activities 

What do you need? A computer with PowerPoint or something similar

Kids love to talk and to share their experiences. Giving them a safe space to express themselves and their experience celebrating Thanksgiving is a great way to begin conversations and respectful discussions.

Ask your kids to prepare a brief presentation in Spanish on why they love Thanksgiving and about their family’s holiday traditions. This is a great opportunity to use adjectives and verbs in Spanish. 

8. Learn a Thankful Song

What do you need?

• A pair of speakers  
• A projector if you want to project the lyrics or the videos

There are two ways you can do this activity: 

The first one is to learn a song about gratitude in Spanish, print out the lyrics, and sing it together near Thanksgiving. 

I recommend the song Tanto, Tanto by Xtreme Kids. Here are some of the lyrics:

Yo tengo tanto, tanto
Tanto, tanto, tanto
Tanto, tanto
Tanto, tanto, tanto
Tanto, tanto
Tanto para agradecer

Tengo un amigo para agradecer
Tengo un amigo para agradecer

Yo tengo tanto, tanto
Tanto, tanto, tanto
Tanto, tanto
Tanto, tanto, tanto
Tanto, tanto
Tanto para agradecer

I have so, so
So, so, so,
So, so
So, so so,
So, so
Much to be thankful for

I have a friend to be thankful for
I have a friend to be thankful for 

I have so, so
So, so, so,
So, so
So, so so,
So, so
Much to be thankful for

Crafts and Activities for All Ages

9.  Grateful Turkey (El Pavo Agradecido) 

What do you need?

• Dry leaves 
• Finger paint
• Color paper 
• Turkey Printable 

Print out the turkey and place it on the surface to picture how you want to do this Thanksgiving craft. 

For the turkey’s tail, you have several options: 

• Use dry leaves
• Paint your students’ hands with finger paint and use the handprints 
• Trace your students’ hands and cut them out 

Whatever you decide to use, arrange it as the turkey’s tail and let it dry if necessary. Then, write Spanish words to express thankfulness and things to be grateful for. 

For example:

Estoy agradecido por la vida.
I am grateful for life.

Estoy agradecida por mis hermanos.
I am grateful for my siblings.

10. Pilgrim Hat Cookies (Galletas de Sombreros de Peregrino) 

Ingredients (Ingredientes)

• 1 taza de crema de vainilla (1 cup of vanilla frosting)
• 7 gotas de colorante de comida amarillo (7 drops of yellow food coloring)
• Chocolates mini de mantequilla de maní (miniature peanut butter cups)
• Galletas (fudge-stripe cookies)  

Instructions (Instrucciones)

1. En un plato poco profundo combinar la crema de vainilla y el colorante de comida para que se vuelva Camarillo. 
   In a plate mix the vanilla frosting and the food coloring so it becomes yellow.
2. Retira el empaque de los chocolates de mantequilla de maní.
   Remove the paper liners from the peanut butter cups.
3. Toma un chocolate al revés y sumerge la parte más ancha en la crema de vainilla (ahora amarilla) y colócala sobre el centro de la galleta, para que parezca un sombrero.
   Take a peanut butter cup upside down and dip the largest part on the yellow frosting, and put it at the center of the cookie, so it looks like a hat. 
4. ¡Disfruta!
   Enjoy! 

11. Organize Your Own Thanksgiving Meal

What do you need?

• A place to eat with your students
• Disposable dishes and cutlery

Celebrating Thanksgiving by eating a simple, potluck meal with your students! Host a Latin American and Spanish Thanksgiving food feast in your classroom. 

Assign different dishes for students to bring such as tamales, tacos, and tortillas. 

¡Feliz día de Acción de Gracias! 
Happy Thanksgiving! 

Let’s Get Together and Practice Our Spanish!

Thanksgiving is all about unity and people coming together to celebrate peace and coexistence. Learning a new language like Spanish is a great way to celebrate that spirit! 

Childhood is the best moment in life to learn a new language! Kids are capable of gaining fluency quickly and with precision! They have an incredible ability to pronounce foreign and unfamiliar sounds like they already know them. The earlier your kids begin, the easier it is for them to learn Spanish. 

Sign your kids up for a free class with one of our native Spanish-speaking teachers, and let’s celebrate by learning from one another! 

Want more free Spanish lessons, fun content, and easy learning strategies for kids? Check these out!

• 10 Ways Learning Spanish Can Improve Your Child’s Behavior
• 8 Places to Learn Spanish in Costa Rica
• Equipping Your Child for Fluency: 8 Tips for Teaching Spanish
• 7 Spanish Reading Games for Kids: Boosting Literacy Skills
• Are Online Spanish Classes the Future of Language Learning?
• Which Spanish Dialect Should You Learn?
• 12 Easy Ways To Memorize Spanish Conjugations
• 9 Tips for Learning How to Learn Two or More Languages at Once