Have you ever thought about doing a fun Thanksgiving lesson in Sunday school? Maybe you weren’t sure where to start.

There are several different things you can do to help your students remember to give gratitude and thanks to God. Below you will find quite a few options for Thanksgiving activities for Sunday school.

You can use them for the whole month of November, and not just one Sunday if you want. Or, you can even have your Sunday school kids take some of these games and activities home to share with their families.

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Are There Appropriate Thanksgiving Activities for Sunday School?

Absolutely there are! Thanksgiving is a great time to learn about gratitude and how to give thanks to God in Sunday school.

I think it’s a great idea to incorporate something below, or something of your own, into your lessons every Sunday in November leading up to Thanksgiving. However, these are also great to do for just one Sunday, most likely the one right before Thanksgiving.

Sometimes kids can learn to be grateful at home, but it doesn’t always stick as well as learning it from someone else in Sunday school.

Things To Incorporate In a Thanksgiving Sunday School Lesson

The scriptures are always reminding us to give thanks to God in all things! One of the best things you can teach your kids is to learn to have gratitude and count their blessings.

Being grateful has been shown to change people’s lives and give a whole new perspective on life. Here are a few scriptures that are great to reference, along with your activity.

  • “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34
  • “I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Corinthians 1:4
  • “For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” 1 Timothy 4:4-5
  • “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
  • “The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song, I give thanks to him.” Psalm 28:7
  • “That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.” Alma 34:38

Sunday School Thanksgiving Activities for Children

Create a fun and interactive Sunday school with these simple Thanksgiving activities for children. You can do them throughout November. They are also great for doing at home to teach your kids gratitude.

Gratitude Cards

Gratitude cards are a great way to talk about and recognize the good in your life. I created 30 different gratitude cards that have a gratitude prompt.

This can help the kids really think of what they are grateful for instead of pulling it out of thin air.

  • You can use these by passing them out in class each Sunday leading up to Thanksgiving. Go around the room and have the students answer the question they received.
  • Place them in a jar and draw one out each week.
  • If you don’t want to go around the room, you can have your students take it home and have them journal about it.
  • Give each student their own set of cards to take home and do with their family.
  • Use them for your whole lesson on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Take turns going around answering all the questions.

Gratitude Prompts

The 10 Lepers

One of the best gratitude stories in the Bible is the story of the 10 lepers. Christ heals them, and only one comes back to give thanks.

Read this story and discuss it. How do we give thanks to Christ?

Gratitude Jar

Bring supplies to make gratitude jars at the beginning of the month. Encourage your Sunday school students to take them home and put something in it every day that they are grateful for.

At the end of the month, have each student read everything they put in the jar. This is a good activity that could be completed by a whole family together too.

Clear glass jar with a blue ribbon on it and two pink flowers. It has the title "my gratitude jar" on it as well.

To make the jars you will need some mason jars (or something like it) and things to decorate them like:

  • Ribbon
  • Buttons
  • Glue or Mod podge
  • Paper – to glue on or Mod podge on
  • Scissors
  • Stickers
  • Pom poms
  • Pipe cleaners

Really anything you can think of craft related would work well.

Gratitude Tree

Make a gratitude tree (click the link to get a FREE 8.5 x 11 tree template). You could do it each Sunday in November so the kids can add leaves to it each week.

Or, give them their own tree to take home and fill out.

Example of a thankful tree.

Gratitude Chain

A lot like the gratitude tree, but you make a chain instead of a tree. This way is fun, and might be a little bit easier to get going. The gratitude chain printable includes 32 prompts to help them think of ways to be grateful.

Write Letters of Gratitude

Bring paper and a pencil and have them write a letter to someone they are grateful for in their life. Or, you can write to people who might need a little pick me up.

Thankful Board

If there is a bulletin board in your classroom or somewhere around the church, you could turn it into a thankful board. Decorate it for Thanksgiving.

Next, have little slips of paper for people to write on and attach to the board. This would involve your whole church, but you could have your class help encourage others.

Read Thanksgiving Books

If you have little-er kids. It might be helpful to talk about gratitude with some simple books. Here are some I recommend.

      

Thanksgiving Treat

Bring a Thanksgiving treat to class for your students to enjoy. Here are some easy no-bake Thanksgiving treats for kids.

Thanksgiving Gratitude Hand Craft

Do a fun gratitude hand craft that is fun and interactive. It gets them thinking about the most important things in life.

Fun Thanksgiving Games for Sunday School

There are also some fun and simple games you can play in Sunday school to help kids think about what they are grateful for. This section includes some FREE printables to help you pull off some games.

M&M Gratitude Game

A fun game involving candy! Pick an M&M and based on the color, you say what you’re grateful for.

Download this candy gratitude game printable to use as a guide.

Picture of the candy gratitude game.

Dice Gratitude Game

A fun dice game that is a lot like the candy game, but you don’t need candy. If you don’t want to pass out candy, use dice instead.

Roll the dice. The number you roll determines what you say you are grateful for. You can download the dice gratitude game here.

Picture of the dice gratitude game.

Thanksgiving A-Z

Print off this “What are you grateful for A-Z” printable. Have your Sunday school students think of something they are grateful for that starts with each letter of the alphabet. This a good game for helping kids be creative.

Picture of the "What are you grateful for A-Z" printable.

As you can see there are quite a few Thanksgiving activities for Sunday school to choose from. Have fun with it!

Whether you’re trying to teach your kids to be grateful at home or in Sunday school these Thanksgiving activities for Sunday school are fun and simple. You can do an activity or play a fun gratitude game.

As a bonus you can use the FREE printables for extra and easy fun.

Thanksgiving activities &games for children’s Sunday school.