Thanksgiving Science Worksheets

About this resource

How does a turkey begin? What makes a cranberry float? Where do pumpkin seeds come from? This is a complete kit for Thanksgiving-season science. Six short reading passages (the turkey egg, the poult, the young turkey, the adult turkey, a cranberry and a pumpkin) give children the facts, and every page after that asks about something they were just given to read. Then they label a drawn turkey, test sink or float, count seeds, read a graph and make one, and sort the turkey life cycle onto cut-and-paste mats. It comes with a tracker, a class grid and a family page, so nothing has to be written from scratch.

EVERYTHING INSIDE (39 pages)

The Page Types, Easiest First

1. Look and Learn (1 dot): the four stages of a turkey's life, a card each for the turkey stages, the cranberry and the pumpkin, the parts of a turkey and what they do, six words to know, and two lines to write.

2. Read About, 6 pages (2 dots): a passage of six short sentences, the words to know, two statements to circle true or false, and two lines to write one more thing learned.

3. True or False, 1 page (1 dot): eight statements about items from all six passages.

4. Cut and Paste, 3 pages (1 or 2 dots): a block of 8 pieces that touch edge to edge, so cutting is a few straight lines. Paste 1 sorts egg from poult, Paste 2 sorts young turkey from adult turkey, Paste 3 sorts animal from plant.

5. Match It A, 1 page (2 dots): six clues. Write the stage or plant from a box of eight names (two are not answers).

6. Label the Turkey, 1 page (2 dots): a turkey drawn in code with seven numbered parts. Write each part from a box of nine words (two are not parts).

7. Fill It In, 2 pages (2 or 3 dots): Set A finishes six sentences; Set B finishes the life cycle story, each from a box of nine words.

8. Investigate, 4 pages (2 dots): guess whether six Thanksgiving foods sink or float and circle what happened, then finish the sentences and draw what you saw; look at a pumpkin and draw it; guess how many seeds, count them and write what you learned.

9. Graph, 2 pages (2 dots): read a bar graph of pretend pumpkin seed counts and answer four questions; ask friends and color a graph of who thinks each food will float.

10. Match It B, 1 page (3 dots): five turkey parts. Write what each one does from a box of eight phrases (three are not answers).

11. Write About Thanksgiving Science, 1 page (3 dots): pick a topic, finish four sentences, draw it in a big box.

How To Use It

Read a passage aloud, let the child read it again alone, then hand over a page. The Start Here page has a chart that says which page for which child. For the sink-or-float test you need a bin of water and six foods; the answer key lists them and what usually happens, and says what to do when the water disagrees.

One Fact At A Time

Every sentence is a widely taught, general statement about a wild turkey, a cranberry or a pumpkin. There is no size, speed, weight, count or date in any passage. Each true statement, clue, fill-in answer and cut piece is something the passage says, and the words in the boxes that are not answers appear in no passage, so a child has to read to choose. The only numbers on any student page are the pretend seed counts in the bar graph, and the page says so.

Built For The Child Holding The Page

A big "My name" line, one short instruction, large rounded type, big answer boxes, and dots (not words or colors) to show which level a page is. Nothing on a student page is written for an adult. Every writing page has primary lines or a drawing box. The file prints clean in black and white.

No Guessing The Answer

Wherever a child picks among printed choices (true or false, sink or float, where a word sits in the box, the order of the pieces on the cut strip), the position of the right answer is checked so it does not sit in the same spot three times in a row.

Type In, Or Print

The name line and every answer box are type-in fields in any PDF reader: click one, type, then save. The same goes for the tracker, the class grid, the team note and the home page. This is a fillable PDF; it is not a Google Slides or PowerPoint file.

Who This Is For

Grade 1 to 3 classrooms, self-contained and resource rooms, and any teacher building a Thanksgiving or fall life-science unit into a center, a small group or a morning work folder. The sentences are short, and the teacher can read each page aloud.

What This Is, And What It Is Not

A Thanksgiving science worksheet set with the record-keeping around it. It is about turkeys, cranberries and pumpkins, not the history of the holiday. It is not a timed test, a screener, a clinical tool, or a claim about any student's age or rate of progress. There is no IEP goal language or eligibility wording anywhere in the file.

More From This Store

Thanksgiving Feast Sort Task Box, Sink or Float Sort Task Box and Animal Habitats Worksheets are also in the store.