3 Fun Turkey Themed Elementary Thanksgiving PE Games
Add some excitement to your November lesson plans with these 3 turkey themed elementary Thanksgiving PE Games: Magical Turkey Drumstick Relay, Wild Turkey Tag, and Turkey Hunting.
Your physical education students will absolutely love playing these P.E. games. They’re not only fast-paced and extremely engaging, they also provide students with opportunities to combine the fun of the Thanksgiving season while practicing key Standard-based skills including, running, skipping, galloping, rolling, and more.
Thanksgiving PE Games
Additionally, all three games are easily adaptable and suitable for students in kindergarten all the way up to fifth grade without much need for any special accommodations.
In this post love2teachandlearn (Mrs. T.) will share every awesome detail related to how to play these incredible November-themed Thanksgiving PE Games.
MAGICAL DRUMSTICK RELAY
Perfect for the holiday season, this game encourages kids to get active while celebrating Thanksgiving traditions.
Students will work together as they ride the magical turkey drumstick (extra long pool noodle) and they race against each other to gather food for their “very hungry” Thanksgiving guests waiting to be fed.
The Magical Drumstick Relay is ideal for practicing teamwork, coordination and just plain old fashioned fun.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
For this game you will need:
- 3-5 Long Pool Noodles
- Food Squishies, Play Food, or Bean Bags
- 3-5 Hula Hoops
- Kids ready to have TONS OF FUN!
GAME SET-UP
Divide the class into teams of 3 or 4 students. Have them line up with their teams at one end of the gym. give each team a long pool noodle and a hula hoop.
Scatter several play food pieces, squishies or bean bags on the gym floor, on the opposite side of the gym from where the students are lined up.
GAME DIRECTIONS
Explain to the students that it is Thanksgiving Day and 50 people suddenly showed up at their house for dinner but they have no food in the house to feed them.
The turkey drumstick (pool noodle) is magical because it can fly to the grocery store super fast.
When the relay begins, all students must hop on and ride on the drumstick (see photo included below) together, traveling to the grocery store (food at the opposite end of the gym) as a team.
Each trip down the gym floor to the grocery store, teams are allowed to choose only one food item to bring back and add to their hula hoop, which is their Thanksgiving table. When all of the food items have been collected, have the students count up how many items they each collected. The team with the most food collected wins the relay.
BONUS GAME TIPS
TIP 1:  I like to play the song LINUS And LUCY by Vince Guaraldi from the soundtrack “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” when I play this game with my students. It’s the perfect Thanksgiving Shopping Song.
TIP 2: Fun food squishies (like pizza, ice cream and hot dogs) are a blast to use with this game. I also have a few rubber chickens that I use and tell the kids to pretend that they are the turkeys. However, if you don’t have squishies you can just use different colored bean bags for the food instead.
TIP 3: I recommend making your teams with 3-4 students. That seems to be the perfect number for this activity. Two is not quite enough for fun and five makes it pretty difficult for all of the students to comfortably ride on the drumstick.
*This game works well with K-5 students but the real sweet spot is with 2-5th graders.
WILD TURKEY TAG
WILD TURKEY TAG is a surefire way to spark joy and enthusiasm with your students.Â
This tag game offers a great opportunity for your students to work on key physical education skills including running, chasing, skipping, galloping and more.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
For this game you will need:
- 3-4 LONG Pool Noodles
- WILD TURKEYS – Kids ready to have tons of FUN!
GAME SET-UP
Choose 3-4 students to be the FARMERS (taggers), give them each a long pool noodle and send each of them to a different corner of the gym.Â
Send the rest of the students (WILD TURKEYS) to the center circle of the gym. If you don’t have a circle, use cones to make a circle in the center of the gym. This will be the WILD TURKEY PEN.
GAME DIRECTIONS
Explain to the students that it is the night before Thanksgiving. The farmers are the taggers and they are very frustrated because all of their turkeys have gone wild and escaped from the turkey pen (center of the gym).
When the music starts or the game begins all of the “WIlD TURKEYS” should escape the turkey pen and run all around the gym. The farmers (taggers) chase after the turkeys trying to tag them with their long pool noodle. If a turkey gets tagged, he or she has to stop, stand still, and raise their hands up in the air.
The farmer then uses the pool noodle to wrap around the turkey’s waist & gently lead them back to the turkey pen. Once in the turkey pen, the turkey must sit down & wait until all other wild turkeys have been caught. The last wild turkey to be caught wins the round. Play another round with new farmers. Play as many rounds needed so all students get a chance to be a farmer.
BONUS GAME TIPS
TIP 1:  I like to play the song TURKEY IN THE STRAW by Phil Rosenthal when I play this game with my students. It’s upbeat and fun – it’s also exactly two minutes long – which makes it perfect for a single round of play.
TIP 2: If you don’t have long pool noodles, you can just have the farmers tag with their hands & then use pieces of rope to bring the turkeys back to the pen.
TIP 3: If you want the game to last longer, have the “caught turkeys” do 5 jumping jacks in the pen instead of sitting down in the middle until all wild turkeys are caught. After their jumping jacks they can get back in the game.
TIP 4: It’s also fun to have the turkeys move around using different locomotor skills during each round including: skipping, galloping, etc.
TURKEY HUNTING
This game encourages kids to get active while celebrating Thanksgiving and fall traditions.
Students will have fun pretending to hunt for their own Thanksgiving turkey dinner.
Turkey Hunting is ideal for practicing the following key PE skills: ROLLING, TEAMWORK and LOCOMOTOR SKILLS including skipping, running, galloping and more.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
For this game you will need:
- 4 Rubber Chickens (Or better yet – rubber turkeys if you have them)
- 8-10 Soft Balls for Rolling
- Basket for Chickens/Turkeys
- Kids Ready for some SERIOUS FUN
GAME SET-UP
Choose 3-4 students to be the hunters and send them to the middle of the gym with the soft balls. The rest of the students are the turkeys and they should spread out around the outside edges of the gym. Place the basket with the chickens/turkeys off to the side somewhere.
GAME DIRECTIONS
Tell the hunters in the middle that they must go hunting for their Thanksgiving turkey dinner. The OBJECT OF THE GAME is for the hunters to “catch” all 4 turkeys (rubber chickens) by the end of the song or round.
The hunters “catch” the turkeys by rolling the balls from the center of the gym and hitting the turkeys as they are moving around the outside of the gym. If a turkey gets hit (knees or below) with a ball, he or she runs over, grabs a turkey from the basket and drops it off in the center of the gym where the hunters are gathered.
The hunters can go outside of the center circle to get the balls but they must release them from back inside the circle. After a few minutes of play, choose new hunters and begin a new round.
BONUS GAME TIPS
TIP 1:Â I like to have the turkeys move around the gym using different locomotor skills each round including: Skipping, Running, Galloping, etc.
TIP 2: I also love to play the song “TURKEY IN THE STRAW” by Phil Rosenthal when playing this game with my students. It’s 2 minutes and 40 seconds long which makes for the perfect length of time for a round of play before switching up the hunters and beginning a new round.
TIP 3: If you don’t have a circle in the middle of your gym, you can easily just make one using cones or Poly Spots.
TIP 4: It’s important to make sure that you have all of the turkeys moving in the same direction around the outside of the gym – you don’t want kids crashing into each other.
Spark joy and enthusiasm in the gym with these 3 Super Fun Thanksgiving PE Games. You can grab your very own Thanksgiving PE Game Bundle RIGHT HERE.
Have a FABULOUS Day filled with plenty of FUN and FITNESS! See you soon!
Be sure to check out my other unique and fun PE Resources and Games in my Love 2 Teach and Learn TPT store RIGHT HERE!
