High School Thanksgiving Games for Youth Groups

Thanksgiving Memory Game

• Play games that get high school students anticipating the approaching Thanksgiving feast. Party Game Ideas, a youth group website, suggests a Thanksgiving game in which food is center stage. One player starts the game by saying, for example, "I ate turkey last Thanksgiving dinner." The next player might say, "I ate turkey and mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving dinner last year." Each subsequent player must list the previous menu items in order and add another dish. When players recite the list incorrectly, they drop out of the game until one player remains. Add a community service element to the activity by writing a list of the Thanksgiving dishes and committing to donating the ingredients for that meal to a homeless shelter for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Trivia

• High school students usually like to show what they know and to compete with each other in friendly rivalry. Young people bring two or three Thanksgiving trivia questions gathered from the library or online written on separate slips of paper with four answers for each question. One answer must be correct and identified as correct. For example, the website Brownie Locks offers trivia questions such as "What U.S. president proclaimed Thanksgiving as a legal holiday always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November?" Choose from Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison (Answer: Franklin Roosevelt). A player selects a slip of paper and asks the person to the right the selected question. The person who answers the most questions correctly wins a Thanksgiving dessert, like a pumpkin pie, to bring home.

Turkey Gift Wrap

• Bring three frozen turkeys, three blindfolds, wrapping paper and tape to a youth group meeting. Groups of three young people wrap the frozen birds while blindfolded. The person from each group who wraps the fastest goes on to compete against the winners from the other groups. The winner receives a prize, like a box of chocolates, and chooses a charity to which to donate the turkeys.

Family Feud

• Playing a Thanksgiving version of the TV game Family Feud will get the kids on their feet and thinking fast. The Xomba youth group website suggests using Family Feud questions based on the results of polls gathered from the group in advance. Students do not know the results of the polls going into the game. Questions with possible answers might include, "The most popular vegetarian Thanksgiving food served in the school cafeteria." List answers, such as "tofurkey," "mashed potatoes," "cranberries" and "green bean casserole." The game host reads questions and answers from index cards.