Free Thanksgiving Placemat Printable for the Kids’ Table
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This free printable Thanksgiving placemat comes in two versions for the kids’ table: ages 2-4 and ages 5-7. Each one has a turkey to color, a maze, a word search or find-it grid, and a thankful strip. Download the Thanksgiving Placemat Kit from the printable card on this page, print it, and tape it down.
A placemat gives the hungry wait before dinner a job. It stays put where loose coloring pages slide to the floor, and it marks each child’s spot.
No printer? The zone layout, both word search grids and the answer key are all below, so you can draw one on kraft paper in about ten minutes.
In this article (13 sections)
- Free Printable Thanksgiving Placemat (Ages 2-4 and 5-7)
- Thanksgiving Placemat Layout for Ages 2-4 and 5-7
- How to Print the Thanksgiving Placemat (or Draw It)
- The Ages 2-4 Placemat
- The Ages 5-7 Placemat
- Thanksgiving Kids’ Table Setup Checklist
- Thanksgiving Kids’ Table Activities: Placemat Games
- Crayons, Markers, and Mess: What to Expect
- More Thanksgiving Kids’ Table Ideas
- Age-by-Age Notes: What to Expect from Each Kid
- Quick Troubleshooting
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Final Tips for a Calm Kids’ Table
Free Printable Thanksgiving Placemat (Ages 2-4 and 5-7)
The Thanksgiving Placemat Kit is a free three-page download. You’ll find it on the printable card on this page.
- Page 1: ages 2-4 placemat. Big leaves around the plate ring, a 5-feather turkey, a wide one-turn maze, a 5×5 find-it grid and a draw box.
- Page 2: ages 5-7 placemat. A pattern border to finish, a 9-feather numbered turkey with a color key, a harder maze, a 10×10 word search and a thankful sentence line.
- Page 3: grown-up page. Both answer keys, the maze solution and the kids’ table setup checklist.
Thanksgiving Placemat Layout for Ages 2-4 and 5-7
The placemat has five zones. Both age bands use the same layout so siblings can sit side by side without a fight about whose is “the real one.” Only the difficulty changes.
The sizes below are for an 11×17 sheet in landscape, which is 17 inches wide and 11 inches tall.
| Zone | Where it goes | Size on 11×17 | What it is | Ages 2-4 version | Ages 5-7 version |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Center plate ring | Middle of the page | 8 inches across | Circle where the plate sits, with a border to color | Five or six very large leaves to scribble on | Border of small leaves, acorns, and patterns to fill in |
| 2. Turkey coloring spot | Top left | About 4 x 4 inches | A turkey with feathers to color | 5 large feathers | 9 feathers with numbers for a color code |
| 3. Maze | Top right | About 4 x 4 inches | Turkey walks to the dinner table | One wide path, one turn | Narrow path, dead ends, 3 turns |
| 4. Word search / find-it | Bottom right | About 4 x 4 inches | Search puzzle | 5×5 letter grid, 2 words (ages 3.5+; younger kids color or point at the pictures) | 10×10 grid, 6 words |
| 5. “I’m thankful for…” strip | Bottom edge | 1.5 inches tall, full width | Writing or drawing line | Draw a picture | Write or dictate one sentence |
The 8-inch ring plus the 1.5-inch strip uses 9.5 of the sheet’s 11 inches, so everything fits with a margin. The bottom left corner holds the word list and color key (ages 5-7) or the pie and corn pictures (ages 2-4).
How to Print the Thanksgiving Placemat (or Draw It)
- Download the kit. Open the Thanksgiving Placemat Kit from the printable card on this page.
- Pick the version. Print page 1 for ages 2-4, page 2 for ages 5-7, or one of each for a mixed table.
- Print at 100%. Use 11×17 paper and turn off fit-to-page so the plate ring stays 8 inches across. If your printer only takes letter-size paper, see the note below these steps.
- Keep page 3 for yourself. It has the answer keys and the maze solution.
- Tape it down. Painter’s tape on all four corners, then hand out the crayons.
No printer? Draw it in 10 minutes
- Trace the ring. In pencil, trace something round and about 8 inches across, like a pot lid, in the middle of an 11×17 sheet.
- Mark the zones. Box a 4-inch square top left, top right and bottom right. Rule a 1.5-inch strip along the bottom edge.
- Draw the turkey. Trace a child’s hand in the top left square, fingers spread. A grown-up hand is too big for a 4-inch box. No small hand nearby? Draw a circle body with five oval feathers fanned behind it.
- Draw the maze. Draw the correct path first, then add walls and a couple of tempting dead ends.
- Add the puzzle. Copy the matching word search grid from this page into the bottom right square, then go over everything in black marker.
TipFor the hand-drawn version, kraft or butcher paper is my favorite surface. It’s sturdy, the brown looks very Thanksgiving, and crayons pop on it. Cut one 11 by 17 inch rectangle per child. Draw one master on plain paper and photocopy it if you need several. Kraft paper buckles if it gets damp, so blot spills right away.
Good to knowOnly have a letter-size printer? You have three ways to go.
- Print it elsewhere. Many copy shops, and some libraries, can print 11×17 pages. Ask for 100% scale.
- Tile it at home. Use the Poster option in a PDF reader such as Adobe Acrobat Reader, set to 100%. It splits each placemat across letter sheets. Trim the edges and tape the sheets together on the back.
- Shrink it. Print with fit-to-page on one 8.5×11 sheet. The ring comes out too small for a plate, so use the sheet as an activity page beside the plate instead.
The Ages 2-4 Placemat
Little ones need big shapes and wide paths. Thin lines and tiny spaces end in tears. Page 1 of the kit has all of this ready. If you’re drawing your own, here’s what goes in each zone.
Safety firstStay with children under 4 the whole time. Use large washable non-toxic crayons. Keep marker caps, colored pencils, stickers, paper scraps, broken crayon bits and real acorns out of reach. Seat little ones within arm’s reach of an adult, and cut holiday food small (no whole grapes or nuts).
Zone 1: The plate ring
The ring is 8 inches across. Most kids’ plates run 7 to 9 inches. A 7-inch plate leaves a half-inch border showing all the way around. A bigger plate covers the leaves once dinner arrives, which is fine, because the coloring comes first.
Around the ring, draw five or six very large leaves, each one a simple oval with a stem. Leave them wide open for scribbling. Do not expect coloring inside the lines. Scribbling is the whole point at two and three.
Zone 2: The turkey
Trace your child’s hand to make the feathers (our handprint turkey craft uses the same trick). Have them splay their fingers, trace around them, and you’ve got five feathers. My own hand is far too big for the 4-inch square, so when no little hand will hold still, I draw five fat ovals instead.
Add a circle body, a small beak, and two dots for eyes. A two-year-old will fill this with whatever color they grab. Let them.
Zone 3: The toddler maze
This is a “path” more than a maze. Draw a wide curving road from a little turkey to a drawing of a pie. Make the road at least an inch wide. One gentle bend. No dead ends. The goal is that a three-year-old drags a crayon from start to finish and feels like a genius. If you’ve done our printable mazes for kids, you’ve seen how much wider the early-level paths are, and the same principle applies here.
Zone 4: The find-it grid (ages 2 to 4)
This is a 5×5 letter grid with two words hidden in straight lines. For little ones, the job isn’t reading. It’s matching shapes. Show them the word on a card (“PIE”) and let them find the same shapes in a row. Four-year-olds can often do this with a little help.
Word search for ages 2-4. Find: PIE and CORN
| P | I | E | Q | M |
| B | L | T | Z | K |
| C | O | R | N | S |
| F | W | A | D | H |
| J | V | Y | U | G |
Answers: PIE is row 1 reading left to right. CORN is row 3 reading left to right.
For non-readers, draw a tiny pie and a tiny ear of corn next to the grid, so they match picture to letters. You can also call out letters (“I’m looking for a P and an I and an E!”) and let them hunt.
Zone 5: The thankful strip
At the bottom, draw a long rectangle and write “I am thankful for…” If your child isn’t writing yet, they draw. A toddler’s “thankful” drawing is often a blob that they’ll tell you is the dog. Write what they say beside it and date it.
The Ages 5-7 Placemat
Five- to seven-year-olds want a challenge, and they hate feeling babied. Page 2 of the kit gives them real puzzles and a few rules. The notes below are for drawing your own.
Zone 1: The plate ring (patterns)
Fill the border with a repeating pattern: leaf, acorn, leaf, acorn. Leave some spots blank so kids can finish the pattern, and a few open for their own designs. It’s the same skill as our pattern worksheets for preschool, and the kids just think they’re decorating.
Zone 2: The numbered turkey
The turkey has nine numbered feathers. The color key sits in the bottom left corner:
| Number | Color |
|---|---|
| 1 | Red |
| 2 | Orange |
| 3 | Yellow |
| 4 | Brown |
| 5 | Green |
| 6 | Purple |
| 7 | Blue |
| 8 | Pink |
| 9 | Your choice |
This is a mini color-by-number. If your kids love it, you’ll want the longer sheets in our color by number worksheets, which build on exactly this skill. Fair warning: a seven-year-old will tell you that real turkeys are not purple. Agree with them, then let them use purple anyway.
Zone 3: The harder maze
Draw the maze path about half an inch wide. Start with a turkey and end at a dinner table. Add two dead ends and a false shortcut. The trick for creating a good kid maze: draw the correct path first, then add walls, then put in dead ends that look tempting. Keep it small enough to finish in three or four minutes. If it takes ten, you’ve made it a source of stress.
Zone 4: Thanksgiving word search for kids (10×10)
This is the main event for older kids. Six Thanksgiving words are hidden, all reading either left to right or top to bottom, so there are no backward or diagonal words to frustrate beginners.
Word search for ages 5-7. Find: TURKEY, CORN, PIE, ROLLS, GRAVY, THANKS
| T | U | R | K | E | Y | W | B | M | D |
| F | J | Z | H | L | Q | N | V | X | A |
| Q | C | O | R | N | D | B | J | W | Z |
| B | X | K | A | Z | M | F | Q | H | T |
| P | D | W | J | Q | B | X | L | V | H |
| I | Z | M | R | O | L | L | S | F | A |
| E | K | B | D | X | W | J | Q | Z | N |
| J | Q | V | F | B | H | Z | M | D | K |
| W | L | X | Z | J | Q | D | B | C | S |
| H | B | G | R | A | V | Y | K | P | F |
Good to knowAnswer key, grown-ups only. TURKEY: row 1, across, from column 1. CORN: row 3, across, from column 2. PIE: column 1, down, rows 5 to 7. ROLLS: row 6, across, from column 4. GRAVY: row 10, across, from column 3. THANKS: last column, down, rows 4 to 9. The same key is on page 3 of the kit, so the kids’ pages stay spoiler-free.
If you’re drawing your own, copy the grid onto the placemat and write the word list beside it. Tell kids to circle words with a crayon. They’ll want a marker, so make it a washable one.
Zone 5: The thankful sentence
Older kids can write one sentence. I like to give a sentence starter: “I’m thankful for ___ because ___.” The “because” is where the good stuff comes out. You might hear something like “I’m thankful for the dog because he never tells on me.”
Thanksgiving Kids’ Table Setup Checklist
Gather these before the kids sit down.
Supplies
- The printed placemats, or kraft or butcher paper to draw on (one sheet per child)
- Black marker, pencil and ruler (hand-drawn version only)
- Washable crayons, especially for kids under 5
- Painter’s tape for the corners
- Optional: large stickers for ages 4 and up, with an adult nearby (none for under-4s)
Set up the kids’ table
- One cup of crayons per two kids (not per table, or there will be a war)
- A small trash bowl for paper wrappers
- Damp paper towel at each end of the table
- A “finished” basket for the rolled-up placemats
- Under-4s seated within arm’s reach of an adult
Thanksgiving Kids’ Table Activities: Placemat Games
Once the coloring slows down, these games get more mileage out of the same sheet.
Placemat bingo (ages 5-7)
This one is for ages 5-7 only. An adult hands each child a few large cover pieces, like torn paper bigger than a coaster. Keep loose paper pieces away from under-4s. Call out things on the placemat (“a leaf! the turkey’s beak! the letter T!”) and have kids cover them. Or flip it: whoever finds the thing first gets to call the next one. It’s quick to explain and usually holds attention for a few minutes.
The silent coloring challenge
Challenge the kids to color the turkey in total silence, and let the winner pick the first dessert. It tends to work only once, but you may get a quiet minute or two.
Pass the placemat
For ages 5-7, have each child color one numbered feather, then pass their placemat to the right until every feather is colored. Kids can sign their feather. Everybody ends up with a collaborative masterpiece, and nobody fights over crayons because they’re too busy trading.
Thankful interview
Older kids can interview younger ones. “What are you thankful for?” The big kid writes the answer on the little kid’s strip. This works wonders for the 7-year-old who’s feeling too old for coloring. Suddenly they have a job.
Crayons, Markers, and Mess: What to Expect
Here’s the realistic mess picture, tool by tool.
| Tool | Mess level | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Washable crayons | Low | Best choice for ages 2-4. Little bits roll off the table, so sweep up broken pieces right away. |
| Regular crayons | Low-medium | Fine for ages 5-7. Peel the paper off first, or the wrappers go everywhere. |
| Washable markers | Medium | Good for older kids. Keep markers and loose caps away from under-4s, or use vented-cap markers. |
| Colored pencils | Low | Sharp points and snapped tips are a poke and choking hazard for under-4s. Ages 5-7 only. |
| Paint | High | Skip it. Paint soaks through kraft paper and won’t dry before dinner. |
| Stickers | Low-medium | Ages 4 and up with an adult nearby. None for under-4s. Great for the thankful strip. They end up on chairs. |
TipCover the table first. If the kids’ table is your good dining table, put a cheap plastic tablecloth under the paper. Crayon on wood is stubborn.
If you’re already thinking about low-cleanup art for little ones, our mess-free art activities for toddlers are a good companion for the holiday weekend.
More Thanksgiving Kids’ Table Ideas
A few small extras sit well beside the placemat.
A centerpiece the kids make
Gather a few dry, clean leaves on a pre-dinner walk, and set them in a bowl in the middle of the table. If you want something more crafty, our acorn crafts for toddlers work well. That post has the Toddler Acorn Craft Card Pack, and the finished acorns make cute place cards.
Safety firstKeep real acorns away from kids under 4 (use felt or paper acorns at a mixed-age table). Check collected leaves for poison ivy or sumac, which turns bright red in fall, use only dry clean leaves, and wash hands afterward.
Leaf rubbings
Slip a real leaf under the edge of the placemat and let kids rub a crayon across it. The leaf shape appears like magic. Our fall leaf crafts for kids have more ideas for using that bag of leaves you collected.
Name cards
Give each child a folded index card to decorate and put at their seat. It’s one more thing to do, and it settles the “who sits where” argument before it begins.
A “when you’re finished” plan
The placemat will run out of steam, usually about twenty minutes in. Have a backup ready: a deck of cards, a few books, or a box of quiet toys.
Age-by-Age Notes: What to Expect from Each Kid
Kids vary wildly, so treat these as rough guides.
| Age | What they’ll likely do | How to help |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Scribble, may mouth crayons, hand you the placemat | Stay close, offer two colors at a time |
| 3 | Color parts of the turkey, enjoy the toddler maze | Narrate what they’re doing, tape the paper down |
| 4 | Stay in the ring-ish, match letters in the grid | Say the letters out loud, let them point |
| 5 | Try the numbered turkey, attempt the maze | Offer the key, don’t correct the colors |
| 6 | Attack the word search, ask how to spell things | Hand over the word list, cheer at each find |
| 7 | Race through everything, then claim it was too easy | Give them the “interviewer” job |
If you have a mixed-age table, the 2-4 sheet and the 5-7 sheet side by side work well. A four-year-old can look at the older child’s word search and feel included even if they’re working on their own.
Keeping the Peace at a Mixed-Age Table
At a kids’ table with six cousins, the problem is rarely the activity. It’s the dynamics.
- Put the oldest child in charge of something. “You’re in charge of the crayon cup.” Responsibility beats boredom.
- Don’t compare. Never say “Look how neat hers is.” Say “I love the colors you picked.”
- Keep one extra placemat blank. Somebody always rips theirs.
What To Do With the Placemats Afterward
- Roll them into a keepsake. Date the back and tuck them in a drawer. Pull last year’s out next November and compare the handwriting.
- Send one to a relative. Grandparents who couldn’t come love getting mail.
Quick Troubleshooting
“My toddler ripped the placemat in thirty seconds.” Print a spare on cardstock, which is much harder to tear, or draw the next one on kraft paper. Tape down all four corners and offer just two chunky crayons at a time. Skip the scrap-paper decoy, because torn bits tend to go straight into little mouths. Sweep up any ripped pieces right away and stay within arm’s reach.
“The older kids said it was babyish.” Hand them the 5-7 sheet and make the word search harder by adding your own words. Or let them design a placemat for the little kids.
“The word search is too hard.” Give them the list with the first letter circled in the grid. That small hint changes everything.
“We have eleven kids and not enough crayons.” Use pairs. Two kids share a crayon cup and a placemat edge, and cooperation becomes part of the game.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there a PDF I can download for the Thanksgiving placemat?
Yes. The free Thanksgiving Placemat Kit is on the printable card on this page. It has the ages 2-4 placemat, the ages 5-7 placemat, and a grown-up page with the answer keys. If you can’t print, the layout table and both word search grids are on this page too. Drawing one on kraft paper takes about ten minutes.
What size should the placemat be?
11 by 17 inches is ideal. That fits an 8-inch plate ring in the center with the activities around it. If your printer only takes letter paper (8.5 by 11), have a copy shop print the 11×17 pages. Or use your PDF reader’s Poster setting at 100% to split the placemat across letter sheets, then tape them together. Printed fit-to-page on a single letter sheet, the ring is too small for a plate, so use it as an activity page beside the plate. Kraft paper from a roll lets you cut whatever size fits your table.
What age is the placemat best for?
The layout works for ages 2 to 7. The ages 2-4 version has big shapes, a wide-path maze, and a tiny letter grid. The ages 5-7 version adds a numbered color key, a tighter maze, and a 10×10 word search with six words. If your child is between bands, try the older one and fall back if it frustrates them.
My child can’t read yet. Can they still do the word search?
Yes, from about age 3.5. For non-readers, use the 5×5 grid and pair each word with a small drawing (a pie, an ear of corn). Kids match letter shapes rather than reading. Call out letters one at a time, like “I’m looking for a P,” and let them point. Younger toddlers can just color or point at the pie and corn pictures. It’s early literacy disguised as a game.
How do I keep crayons from ending up all over the floor?
Give each pair of kids one cup of crayons rather than a pile, and keep a small bowl in the middle for wrappers and broken bits. Washable crayons are a good bet for under-fives.
What if the kids finish in five minutes?
That happens, especially with the 5-7 crowd. Have a backup plan: the “thankful interview,” where older kids write answers for younger ones, or a game of placemat bingo. You can also keep a few blank sheets nearby so kids can invent their own maze or draw a feast. Planning for the end keeps the table calm.
Can I use this for a classroom or group party?
Absolutely. The layout is easy to copy for a group. Print one copy of each age band, photocopy it, and hand them out. For a classroom, the thankful strip makes a nice bulletin board display, and the word search works as a quiet-time activity before the party starts.
Final Tips for a Calm Kids’ Table
A placemat won’t solve everything, but it gives those first hungry, restless minutes a purpose. Print the kit or draw your own, and let the kids color their way to dinner.
