Thanksgiving Songs for Kids: Classroom and Preschool Picks
Thanksgiving songs for kids that work at circle time or the class feast: what to sing, what to play, a 20-minute running order, and two songs to leave out.
The short answer
Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, November 26 (federal law fixes it as the fourth Thursday in November, 5 U.S.C. 6103), so most class feasts and circle times land between November 16 and 24. For kids aged about 3 to 8, the songs that work are short, repetitive and easy to act out:
- Sing together: "Over the River and Through the Wood", "Simple Gifts", and a counting rhyme like "Five Little Turkeys" that you can make up verses for.
- Play songs they already know about friends and being thankful: "You've Got a Friend in Me", "Count on Me", "Thank You for Being a Friend".
- Put quiet instrumental music under the snack and the crafts. The A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving score is a good fit.
- Leave out "Turkey in the Straw" and any song or activity built around kids dressing up as "Indians". Both are explained below.
Listen to every recording all the way through before the day. Music apps, ours included, cannot filter out a song with a bad word in the second verse.
Who this is for
You are a preschool or early-grades teacher planning the week before the break, a room parent who signed up for "music" at the class feast, or the parent whose kitchen table becomes the kids' table on the day. You need 20 minutes of songs that a room of small kids can join in on without a lyric sheet, that will not upset a family, and that you can start and stop from your phone.
If you are planning the grown-ups' dinner instead, our Thanksgiving dinner playlist is the guide for that.
Songs to sing together
"Over the River and Through the Wood". This is the one Thanksgiving song most American kids learn. Lydia Maria Child wrote it as a poem, "The New-England Boy's Song about Thanksgiving Day", published in Flowers for Children in 1844, and it was later set to a tune by an unknown composer (Wikipedia). Two things worth knowing: Child wrote "to grandfather's house", though most people now sing "grandmother's", and it is a Thanksgiving song, even though many recordings swap in Christmas words. Pick a version that says "Thanksgiving Day".
"Simple Gifts". A Shaker song credited to Elder Joseph Brackett in 1848, and the tune Aaron Copland used in Appalachian Spring in 1944 (Wikipedia). It is short, slow and about being thankful for simple things, which suits the end of circle time. Older kids can learn the first verse in one sitting.
A counting rhyme: "Five Little Turkeys". Rhymes like this one are traditional and come in many versions, so there is no single right one. Five kids stand up as turkeys, one sits down each verse, and the class counts down. Make up your own verses with the kids' ideas.
"We Gather Together". A Dutch hymn from 1597, sung in English since Theodore Baker's 1894 translation, and in the US it is widely linked to Thanksgiving (Wikipedia). It is a prayer, though. It suits a faith-based school or a family table. In a public school classroom, check with your school before using it.
Songs they already know about friends and thanks
Thanksgiving circle time often turns into "what are you thankful for?" These songs fit that theme, and many kids will already know them:
- "You've Got a Friend in Me", Randy Newman, written for Toy Story in 1995 (Wikipedia)
- "Count on Me", Bruno Mars, from Doo-Wops & Hooligans (2010) (Wikipedia))
- "Thank You for Being a Friend", written and first recorded by Andrew Gold in 1978. The cover by Cindy Fee became the theme of The Golden Girls (Wikipedia), so the grown-ups will smile too
For the snack and the crafts, play something without words, so the kids can talk. A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving first aired on CBS on November 20, 1973, with music by Vince Guaraldi, and the complete remastered score was released on October 20, 2023, for its 50th anniversary (Wikipedia). It is light jazz the kids may recognize from the Peanuts specials.
A 20-minute running order you can copy
| Minutes | What happens | Music |
|---|---|---|
| 0 to 3 | Kids sit down in the circle | One song they know, low |
| 3 to 8 | "Over the River" | Sing along with a recording, then once without it |
| 8 to 12 | "Five Little Turkeys" | No recording. You lead it |
| 12 to 17 | "What are you thankful for?" | A friendship song, low, while kids take turns |
| 17 to 20 | Wind down | "Simple Gifts" |
| Feast or snack | Kids eat | Instrumental list on repeat |
If the kids are getting restless, it is fine to fade a recording out after the second chorus.
Two songs to leave out, and one activity
"Turkey in the Straw". It has "turkey" in the title, so it shows up on Thanksgiving lists for kids. The tune is tied to "Zip Coon", a minstrel song from around 1834, and to a 1916 Columbia record that used it with a racist title (Wikipedia). Because of that history, NPR published a piece in 2014 about the ice cream truck jingle that uses the melody, and Good Humor worked with RZA on a new jingle in 2020. There are plenty of other turkey songs.
"Alice's Restaurant". Many radio stations play it every Thanksgiving, but it is an 18-minute, mostly spoken story by Arlo Guthrie from 1967 about a littering arrest and the Vietnam War draft (Wikipedia). Save it for the grown-ups.
Songs and costumes about "Pilgrims and Indians". Classroom traditions like paper feather headbands and "Indian" vests are common, and many educators now advise against them. Learning for Justice calls for "refusing to dress students in feathered headbands", arguing the imagery "turns real human beings into costumes for a few days a year" (Teaching Thanksgiving in a Socially Responsible Way). Any song that asks kids to act out "Indians" has the same problem. For better material, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian has a free teacher handout, Rethinking Thanksgiving Celebrations: Native Perspectives on Thanksgiving.
Can you play recorded music in a classroom?
In the US, the Copyright Act allows a "performance or display of a work by instructors or pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction" (17 U.S.C. 110(1)). A music lesson clearly counts. Whether a class party does is less clear, and private and for-profit preschools are not covered by that exemption at all. This is not legal advice. Ask your director or principal, who may already have a policy.
Schools also often have their own rules about phones, streaming and which videos can go on the class screen. Check those first, and plan for a school Wi-Fi network that blocks music streaming.
Building it in Trending Music
Trending Music is our app, so weigh this section accordingly. You can find the songs above in it and build the playlists for free.
- Make two playlists: "Circle Time", in the order of the table above, and "Feast", for the instrumental music. Search for the first song, tap the ••• on its row (or press and hold the row), choose Add to Playlist, then New Playlist, type the name and tap Create. For every song after that, choose Add to Playlist and pick the playlist under Your Playlists.
- Check the words. While a song plays, open the player and switch to Lyrics to read along. Lyrics are not available for every recording, and the app has no clean-version filter, so listen to anything you are unsure of all the way through.
- Turn off Autoplay in the app's Settings, then Playback. Otherwise similar music keeps playing when your list ends, and that music has not been checked.
One honest catch. The free version of Trending Music is supported by ads, and it can show a full-screen ad when a new song starts. With a room of four-year-olds that is an interruption you do not want, so do a full run-through the day before, keep the phone in your hand during circle time, or use Premium, which removes ads. If your school already has a music service on the class screen, use that. The running order works in any app.
What is the most popular Thanksgiving song for kids?
"Over the River and Through the Wood". Lydia Maria Child published it as a poem in 1844, and it has been sung to a traditional tune ever since. Many versions change the words to Christmas, so check that the one you play says "Thanksgiving Day".
How many songs do you need for a preschool Thanksgiving circle time?
Five or six for a 20-minute circle time: one to settle the kids, two or three to sing, one quiet song while they share what they are thankful for, and one to wind down. Add a separate instrumental list of about ten tracks for the snack or feast, and set it to repeat.
Before the feast
Pick five songs, build the two playlists, and listen to every one the night before with the lyrics open. Then turn off Autoplay, charge the speaker, and check whether the school Wi-Fi lets you stream.
Did the class Halloween party go well? The same pause-on-cue tricks from our Halloween music games for kids work for a Thanksgiving freeze dance. And if you are hosting Hanukkah a week later, our Hanukkah songs guide has a list of songs kids know.