I look forward to Thanksgiving each year for the opportunities it provides to teach my children a bit about the United States’ history. I know quite a bit about the European settlers who came over to this continent, and I am learning more and more about the Native American people who had already lived here for thousands of years before the arrival of the Europeans.
The relationships between the early European settlers and the Native people is more complicated than I was taught in my history books, and it is a relationship that interests me quite a bit. I am also very interested in the diet of the Natives and early settlers: how they learned to grow food on a new continent, the help they received to grow their food, and which foods they were ultimately able (and not able) to grow.
In fact, the dietary options available to the pilgrims is a focal point of the Thanksgiving holiday, when we eat several foods that were likely eaten at the first harvest festival celebrated by the pilgrims and their Native American friends.
In honor of the upcoming American Thanksgiving holiday, I have created a free Thanksgiving Bingo game for you to download and enjoy with your children.
Note: For more Thanksgiving printables your kids will love, see my Thanksgiving Activities for Kids page.
Did you know that playing Bingo can help children develop their executive functioning skills? Executive functioning skills are controlled by the frontal cortex of the brain, and they are integral to the development of important skills such as impulse control. (We all want our kids to exhibit better impulse control, right?)
Changing up the rules each time you play Thanksgiving Bingo is a great way to give kids’ executive functioning skills a workout. For example, the first time kids need to get a straight line to win. The next time kids need to get the four corners to win. The next time kids need to fill in all squares to win. Mixing it up like this will help kids develop flexibility in their thinking.
My Thanksgiving Bingo game printable features a total of 10 different playing cards. Here is a sneak peak at the first six:
And here is a sneak peak at the calling cards used for playing:
Two different versions of the Indian cards are available, so you can choose whether you prefer the term “Indian” or the term “Native American.”
The “Indian” cards are featured in the collage above, and below I have an image of the “Native American” cards.
You can play blackout Bingo, four corners Bingo, or line Bingo with these cards. No matter how you play, my Thanksgiving Bingo game provides a great opportunity to learn Thanksgiving-related vocabulary.
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More Thanksgiving resources
More Thanksgiving posts from Gift of Curiosity:
- Books about Thanksgiving
- 20+ turkey crafts and activities
- Thanksgiving do-a-dot printables
- Thanksgiving Printables Pack
- Thanksgiving coloring pages
- Thanksgiving Sudoku
- Turkey feather spelling activity
For more Thanksgiving printables and activities your kids will love, see my Thanksgiving Activities for Kids page and my Thanksgiving Pinterest board.
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