Thanksgiving Logic Puzzles

About this resource

Logic puzzles for little ones are hard to find at a reading level they can manage. Here the Thanksgiving table is the puzzle: who sat where, who brought which dish, which word or shape does not belong, and what comes next. Short clue sentences, big answer boxes and no clip art to clutter a page. Print it and hand it over, or type into it.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (36 pages)

• 20 student pages in 7 formats, 58 puzzles in all. Every puzzle has exactly one answer, checked by a program while the pages were built
• 14 seat puzzles: 3 seats and 4 seats, 3 clues each, with a solved example on the learn-how page
• 5 dish grids: three guests and three dishes, then four guests and four dishes. Mark X for no and a check for yes
• 13 odd-one-out word sets (circle it, name the group, tell why) and 14 shape sets (one of four does not belong)
• 12 pattern puzzles: repeating shapes and words, then counting by 2s, 5s and 10s and back by 2s. Pick A, B or C
• 2 cut-and-paste pages (14 name tiles) and 2 make-your-own pages (a blank seat puzzle and a blank dish grid)
• 2 answer-key pages, printed from the same data as the puzzles
• 1 tracker (20 pages), 1 class progress grid, 1 team note, 1 home page with 6 name cards to cut, 1 filled example (an invented student), 1 phrase bank (17 starters)
• 1 binder cover and 6 divider tabs with a spine label to cut out
• Start Here, a how-to-read-a-page page (with the clue words explained) and a contents page

The Seven Formats

1. Who Sat Where (4 pages): seats in a row, three clues, write each name in its seat. Starts with a solved example.

2. Who Brought What (3 pages): a grid of guests and dishes with X and check boxes, then write who brought what.

3. Odd One Out (3 pages): four words, write the odd one; then name the group; then say why.

4. Does Not Belong (3 pages): four plain shapes, write the number of the one that does not belong; the last page asks why.

5. What Comes Next (3 pages): shape patterns, word and shape patterns, then number patterns.

6. Cut and Paste (2 pages): two seat puzzles a page; cut the name tiles and paste each in its seat.

7. Make Your Own (2 pages): the child writes clues for a friend to solve.

Each page carries dots, not words, so children at one table cannot see who has which step.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction with an icon, large rounded type and answer boxes a child's handwriting fits in. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. No clip art: every puzzle is words, numbers or plain shapes.

Easy Cutting

Pieces touch edge to edge, so every cut is one straight line. Every cutting page has at least 5 pieces, each at least 1.1 inches on every side.

Type In, Or Print

Name boxes, grid boxes, writing lines, the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the home page are type-in fields in any PDF reader. The pages print clean in black and white. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides, Docs or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Kindergarten through 2nd grade classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, centers, small groups and early finishers in November. The home page sends the same job to a family; the team note hands off what changed since the last meeting.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

Reasoning practice with Thanksgiving-table themes, with the record-keeping around it. It is not a probe, a goal bank or a score sheet, and makes no claim about any student's age or progress. It teaches nothing about the history of the holiday. All names are invented.