Whether you’re looking for Thanksgiving fun or a few nonseasonal themes to focus on during the month of November, you’ll find what you need in this collection of November preschool activities.
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The free printable November kids’ activity calendar is filled with playful learning activities to do with kids at home or in the classroom. Use it yourself, or send a copy to parents so they have a little inspiration for hands-on fun and learning.
Read over the brief descriptions of the November preschool activities below. Then grab your own free printable November activity calendar, and you’ll have a full month of activity ideas at your fingertips. The free printable includes links to each post so you can click through online for more information, and you can also print it out to use as a quick reference.
We’re also always creating new activity ideas, and I know you want to stay up to date on those as well. In addition to an introduction to the activities originally included in the free printable calendar, I also add new activities we create related to each theme so you’ll have more options to choose from. Those are listed below each week’s original activity suggestions but are not reflected in the free printable calendar.
For some themes, we have full theme planning guides and printable lesson plans. If those are available for a particular theme, there are also links to those resources included with the related weekly theme.
November Preschool Activity Themes
For our November preschool activities we’re exploring the following topics:
Week 1: Colors
Week 2: Farm
Week 3: Thanksgiving
Week 4: Folk Tales
Note: The free printable does not include dates. Simply pick and choose which theme you want to do for each week in November, and change the order as necessary.
Week 1: Colors
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- EAT A RAINBOW: Try to eat a rainbow of foods throughout the week. Extend the concept by making a rainbow foods science journal. As they eat different colors of foods, kids can draw or write the items on the corresponding page in the journal.
- COLOR MIX: Set out red, yellow, and blue paint. Let kids freely explore color mixing with paintbrushes and paper.
- FND AND SORT: Gather toys or items around the classroom. Then sort them by color. Count and compare how many items you have for each color. (Do different sets of colors on different days to keep it more manageable.)
Color Theme Activities from the Free Printable November Activity Calendar
Color Sensory Bins: Single color sensory bins are a fun way for toddlers and preschoolers to work on color recognition. For your own color sensory bins, you can choose to set up a color bin related to a seasonal theme (like these Halloween bins) or leave it more open-ended and move through the rainbow of color bins!
Pom Pom Sorting and Art Invitation: For this super simple activity just grab some pom poms. Let kids spend some time sorting them by color. If appropriate discuss the different shades of colors in your collection as well. Once kids have sorted the pom poms by color invite them to do some creating. See what kind of pom pom art they come up with!
Lollipop Lab Color Mixing: Get your little scientists experimenting as they create new colors in this color mixing lollipop lab. Bonus: If you’ve got lollipops leftover from Halloween, use those!
Color Matching Nature Walk: Help young children learn colors and older kids focus in closely on details like different shades of colors during a color matching nature walk. You’ll need some color samples in a variety of colors, a hole punch, and a ring clip to help hold your color samples together. Punch a hole in the corner of each sample. Then combine them all with the ring clip, and you’re ready to head outside!
Color Mixing Art: We use Wilton Icing Colors for all sorts of baking and crafting projects, so we always have some on hand. While baking one day my oldest asked what would happen if we put the icing colors on paper, so began our little exploration. You can do a similar activity to this with regular paints or liquid watercolors if you do not have icing colors. If you do have some, this works well as a way to use up the final bits in the containers when they are almost empty! The final dried art reminded us of the designs made when painting with bleeding tissue paper.
Additional Resources
Color Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of color theme lesson plans and activity ideas inspired by the book Mix It UP.
Week 2: Farm
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- FARM ANIMAL CHARADES: Have kids think of a farm animal to act out. Then take turns guessing the animal. With toddlers and young preschoolers use animal sounds, too. Make it more challenging for older kids by eliminating sounds.
- WHERE DOES FOOD COME FROM? Discuss the different types of foods kids eat. Identify which foods are grown on farms and whether they come from plants or animals.
Farm Theme Activities from the Free Printable November Activity Calendar
Simple Farm Sensory Play: These one-ingredient bins are super easy to set up and they encourage a lot of open-ended sensory exploration. For this series of activities, I chose to follow a pattern of reading a story and then introducing one new bin at a time. You may also want to consider whether you are going to let the kids mix the bins or you want them to keep the materials separate. We chose to keep the materials separate, so even after all bins were introduced I placed them in separate locations around the room to prevent them from getting mixed together.
Vegetable Stand Pretend Play: As we learn about the farm and foods produced on farms, it can be a lot of fun to learn more about vegetables. To set up the stand, I gathered fresh produce, a large cardboard box, a table cloth, one of our toy bin organizers, and a few store-related accessories we had around the house. The real novelty here was the fresh produce. As we cooked and prepared snacks we also selected produce from the vegetable stand so that it did not go to waste. (Of course, you can also substitute with pretend play food)
Pop Pop Pop Painting with Corn: We decided to see what would happen if we tried to paint with dry corn kernels after using them for other activities. I decided to try pie plates with lids so we could really hear the “popping” as we were painting. The kids added a little bit of paint (just a little for this project) and a few corn kernels to the tins. We made sure our tins were closed tightly. Then we turned on our favorite popcorn song and popped up and down to do our painting!
Vegetable Syllable Sort: For this activity, we used a variety of pretend and real vegetables to discuss their features and names. Next, we introduced the free printable printed out vegetable cards as they include a wider variety of veggies. Then it was time to introduce syllable segmentation. Once the kids were able to accurately segment a few common words, we moved right along to sorting the vegetable cards!
Corn Footprint Craft: When we did our farm theme, we turned a LARGE refrigerator box into a barn. Then we made a few different farm crafts to decorate the outside of it. This corn footprint craft was one of our favorites!
Additional Resources
Farm Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of farm theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 3: Thanksgiving
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- PLAN A FEAST: Incorporate some health and nutrition by discussing healthy food choices and the different food groups. Work together to plan a Thanksgiving feast or try making a new recipe together to share on Thanksgiving Day.
- TURKEY FEATHER HUNT: Gather some feathers (or cut some out of paper if you don’t have any feathers on hand). Hide them around the room, and challenge kids to find them. Scavenger hunts are always a fun way to get kids up and moving!
- SPREAD KINDNESS: Together think of things kids are most thankful for. Then turn those into inspiration for acts of kindness. Thankful for food? Deliver food to a food drive in your area. Thankful for warmth? Donate socks or blankets to a local shelter.
Thanksgiving Activities from the Free Printable November Activity Calendar
Mayflower STEM Challenge: As you learn the Thanksgiving story invite kids to make their own mini Mayflowers. Then test whether or not they will float!
Turkey Play Dough Invitation: Gather some loose parts, feathers, and brown play dough for a quick prep turkey play dough invitation.
Roll and Color Turkey Math: Practice 2D shape recognition with this free printable roll and color turkey math activity.
Indian Corn Squish Bag: Exercise those fine motor muscles by having kids pull kernels off a piece of Indian Corn (also known as Flint Corn or variegated corn). Then add those pieces to a plastic bag with some clear hair gel and yellow food coloring for a fun sensory play experience for toddlers and preschoolers. Be sure to seal the bag with clear packing tape to extend playtime and avoid a mess!
Indian Corn Craft and Legend: After learning the Five Kernels of Corn Legend we used a pencil to stamp paint this Indian Corn craft (also known as flint corn or variegated corn)
Additional Resources
Thanksgiving Theme Planning Guide
Thanksgiving Song List and Movements
Thanksgiving Theme Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full week of Thanksgiving theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Week 4: Folk Tales
LOW-PREP IDEAS…
For this week try these…
- JUST RIGHT WITH GOLDILOCKS: Gather a collection of items and clothing. Some that are too small, some that are too big, and some that are just right. After retelling the story of Goldilocks investigate the items and sort them by into sets of too small, too big, and just right.
- GET UP AND MOVE WITH THE THREE BILLY GOATS: As you retell the story of the Three Billy Goats have kids stand up and practice trip trapping over the bridge with soft, medium, and loud stomps. And don’t forget to encourage them to use their soft, medium, and loud voices as they stand up to that mean ole troll!
- HAVE A BREAD TASTE TEST: If you can’t make bread in the classroom with your students after reading The Little Red Hen, bring in some samples of different kinds of bread (be sure to check for allergies first!) and have the kids do a taste test.
Folk Tale Activities from the Free Printable November Activity Calendar
Jack & the Beanstalk Math: Grab this free printable and some loose parts to help Jack gather gold and climb the beanstalk. We also used the printable to practice comparing numbers. Great hands-on counting practice for preschoolers and kindergarteners!
Three Little Pigs Science: “I’ll huff and I’ll puff, and I’ll BLOW your house down!” This classic children’s story has so many wonderful literacy, math, and science activity extensions you can explore. Kids have tons of fun huffing and puffing like the Big Bad Wolf as they learn more about force and motion!
Jack & the Beanstalk Sensory Bin: Create a Jack & the Beanstalk Sensory Bin for pretend play, story retelling, and sensory play. Click the link to learn how to make your own!
Little Red Hen Sensory Play: For this Little Red Hen activity you’ll want to gather materials to represent the main story elements. Then use them for retelling the tale and sensory fun!
Jack & the Beanstalk STEM: Build your own beanstalk with a paper plate and cardboard tube. Then grab some beans for kids to experiment with. We used them for math activities and sensory activities throughout the week!
Additional Resources
Folk Tale Inspired Preschool Lesson Plans
Get a full set of folk tale theme lesson plans and activity ideas.
Get the Free Printable November Activity Calendar
Note: Updated version is slightly different from the one pictured here. It does not have dates listed so that it can be used again and again from year to year.
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