Sensory Thanksgiving Scavenger Hunt! (worksheet included)

It’s almost that time of year! You know, when you and your entire extended family meet at your great aunt’s house to celebrate Turkey Day. Maybe you are the lucky one who gets to host this year! Whether you are a guest or the one entertaining, it’s a great time to spend with loved ones and family and friends of all ages. What’s your favorite part about Thanksgiving? (Mine is the apple pie, no judgment here.)

Speaking of all ages - sometimes having children of all ages running around can be challenging, and you are not sure how to entertain them all. So for this week, we thought we would post a resource that could provide some seasonal entertainment for children and adults alike! Let’s call it, The 5 Senses of Thanksgiving (aka Thanksgiving Sensory Scavenger Hunt).

Thanksgiving Sensory Scavenger Hunt

This is a scavenger hunt-like game that incorporates all 5 senses. We all know that taste is a personal Thanksgiving favorite (or it is at least ours), but we’ve also included touch, smell, sight, and hearing to the sensory mix!

**FREE download on our Teachers Pay Teachers page!**

Objective:

For younger children: find all of the items on the (game) Turkey Board. Cross out or mark after each item is found.*

*For older children: in addition to crossing off everything on the board, have them write an adjective next to each item to describe it. Remember, the describing word has to correspond to the appropriate sense (e.g., for touch a pumpkin might be “firm” or “groovy”). Take it a step further and write the describing word with the item in a complete sentence (e.g. “The pumpkin is firm!”)

To play:

Download and print the worksheet for each player - print in black and white for some extra coloring fun.
Cross off each item on the Turkey Board once the item has been found outside or around the house.
The first person/team to locate each item (or the most amount of items) wins!

Fun playing tips:

Pair up into teams. Teams can be kids with kids, kids with adults, or even adults with adults

To increase communication between kids and adults, (if adults are not playing) assign each adult one of the items on the sheet (e.g. the candle, timer). Encourage the child to ask the adult questions so they can figure out how to locate their item is; e.g. ask where it could be found, follow clues to find it, respond to wh- questions about the item (“What do you do with it?” “Where can buy it?”). The adult may give them ideas about what questions to ask, e.g. say, “ask me if it’s bigger than a microwave, or ask me what color it is.”.