Thanksgiving Placemat Craft

These Thanksgiving placemats incorporate writing with a simple craft and are a wonderful way to get children thinking about gratitude! They are perfect for a school Thanksgiving feast or bulletin board display before being sent home as a keepsake for parents!

What’s included in this Thanksgiving Placemats set?

This set includes printable materials to make Thanksgiving placemats. Here’s what you’ll find inside:

✔ Teacher Tips & Illustrated Student Directions
These pages make it easy to prep and organize for the activity and allow students to be independent as they work.

✔ A Pre-Writing Pocket Chart Activity
This optional activity helps students transfer their brainstorming into writing and can be repurposed as a reading center throughout the Thanksgiving season.

✔ Printable Thanksgiving Placemat Components
Students will color and cut out a napkin, fork, knife, and spoon to glue onto their placemat. You will need to provide construction paper.

✔ Differentiated Writing Templates
The plate portion of the craft is provided with three line styles: no writing line (just a space for a picture), one line for a caption, primary writing lines, or intermediate writing lines. Choose the templates that best fit the needs of your students.

✔ Thanksgiving-Themed Writing Paper
These writing pages are included in two themes (“I am thankful for…” and “Let’s eat!”) and are also included with four different line styles. These pages don’t require cutting or gluing and can be used as a quick activity.

✔ Table Setting Poster and Rhyme
This display poster reminds students how to correctly set a table.

How to Use this Thanksgiving Placemat Set

Pre-Writing Pocket Chart Activity (optional)
Have a class discussion about Thanksgiving and thankfulness. Have students brainstorm things for which they are thankful. Send each child back to their spot with a writing strip and have them write their name and what they are thankful for and draw a small picture. As students finish, have them bring their writing strip to the pocket chart to complete the sentence “I am thankful for _____.” Students can practice reading their own and each other’s sentences. This pocket chart activity can be re-purposed as a reading center throughout the Thanksgiving season.

This pre-writing activity can also be used with the “Let’s eat!” writing paper at the end of this file.

Making the Placemats
Choose the writing paper (plate) that meets the needs of your students. Have students complete the plate portion of their placemat first, dividing the project into multiple sessions if necessary. After writing, coloring, and cutting their silverware, napkin, and plate, students are ready to assemble their placemats. Have students glue the smaller piece of construction paper onto the larger one first, then glue the place setting and the “Happy Thanksgiving” strip. If you wish, have students glue a nameplate onto the back with their name, the date, their grade, and their teacher. Many families save this placemat for years to come! Laminate the placemats for durability.

What Teachers Are Saying About This Thanksgiving Placemat Craft:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “My students and I used these to decorate the lunchroom around the time we were having Thanksgiving lunch at school. They really enjoyed this! It's also a great activity for practicing multi-step instructions!” –Sarah M.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “My students loved making their own placemats! I allowed them to decorate them and then I laminated them after gluing them to construction paper. This way they can keep them forever and take them home. As a mom, I love getting things like this from school. I appreciate how easy it was to use. Thank you!” –Pamela R.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Very versatile and gives you a lot of options for writing pages. Love this activity. Did it with all of my OT students! Thank you!” –Amy D.

You might also like:

▶ All About Turkeys Thematic Unit

▶ All About Reindeer Thematic Unit

▶ Winter Holidays Fine Motor Skills Task Boxes

Please see the preview file for more detailed images. If you have any questions, email susan@myhappyplaceteaching.com or use the “Q&A” feature on this page.

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