Looking for some fun Thanksgiving activities for your student gatherings? Perfect, because here are eight ideas you can adapt to fit the needs of your youth group!
8 Hall-of-Fame Youth Ministry Thanksgiving Activities
- Turkey bowling. Grab a frozen turkey – don’t thaw it out – and a dozen two liter bottles filled with water. Line them up, and let ‘er rip. Two warnings: a frozen turkey will knock a hole in a sheetrock wall, and a two liter bottle of carbonated drink will explode. We promise.
- Cranberry sauce sculpting. Make sure you use the jello version in a can. Oh, and it can get very messy so make sure to bring extra napkins.
- Jimmy Fallon “Thank-You Note” game. Divide students into teams and then have them write thank you notes – Jimmy Fallon style. Let the notes be read on stage.
- Local mission project. Depending on the needs in your area, take your students to sing outside an assisted living facility, rake leaves at elderly church members’ homes, or pick up trash in a messy area.
- Thanksgiving tree. Create a tree out of paper, repurposed wood, or a simple drawing, and have students attach things they are thankful for to the tree. Then read “The Giving Tree” as a fun ending.
- List 100 things to be thankful for. Give students 10 minutes to write down 100 things they are thankful for. The goal is to write them down as quickly as you can so you can complete the list in 10 minutes. Debrief and invite students to make observations about their lists.
- Have students write thank you notes to people they love. Add humor by having them write the notes on a turkey out of their hand print (tempura paint and construction paper) like they did when they were in preschool.
- Thank-you notes to students. Have the youth leaders share things they are thankful for to the group. You could include experiences from the past year, things that make him/her proud of the group, etc.
Have a Thanksgiving idea that didn’t make the list? Then tell us about it down below!
© Group Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. No unauthorized use or duplication permitted.
Help out a food pantry by having your youth collect non perishable food items THEY LIKE TO EAT (princess shaped noodles & cheese, sardines, V8 splash, etc.) and write something for which they are thankful for on a turkey shaped tag; then attach the tag to the food item (no names). Once all of them are collected, take them to the food pantry.
You’ll be teaching the youth about giving, sharing bounty,a helping others, and spreading God’s love.