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    You are here: Home / Holiday / Thanksgiving Puzzles, Rebuses and Riddles

     

    Thanksgiving Puzzles, Rebuses and Riddles

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    When you're gathered around the Thanksgiving table and need an ice breaker, get the laughs going with these Thanksgiving puzzles, riddles and rebuses.

    Picture the scene. It's Thanksgiving, you didn't burn the turkey, the cranberries are wiggling in all their gelatinous glory and the rolls are only slightly burned on the edges. Everyone sits down, says grace and starts shoveling the food in their mouths. But then, Cousin Eddie and Uncle Gus start arguing about politics. How do you stop them? With a hilarious riddle or brain-busting scrambled word, that's how!

    Thanksgiving Word puzzle printable and glass jar holding riddles

    It's so important to be able to have some screen-free Thanksgiving activities that everyone will love, and these will make everyone smile and stop talking about politics!

    Our Thanksgiving puzzles printable is four pages. One each of:

    • Scrambled Thanksgiving words
    • Thanksgiving riddles
    • Thanksgiving rebuses. A rebus is a picture-word puzzle.
    • Words for a rousing game of Thanksgiving charades

    Thanksgiving puzzles how-to:

    1. Get the printable

      Get the free printable by filling out the form below in step 2. The pdf will fly over to your inbox, but don't let it sit there while you burn the turkey and mash the potatoes! Print it out!Uncut Thanksgiving puzzles printables 4 pages

    2. Here's the printable form:

    3. Prepare for fun

      After printing, cut out the individual puzzles and words. Seems pretty self-explanatory, yes?Scissors and partially cut out Thanksgiving puzzles

    4. Solve!

      Put on your thinking hats to solve the puzzles and play charades! Below, I'm going to give you some tips for extra fun ways to incorporate these Thanksgiving puzzles into your holiday celebration. Answers to puzzles are at the bottom of this post. No peeking.

    Tips

    Ideas for using the puzzles to enhance your celebration:

    Use them as ice-breakers. When guests arrive, kids ask them to "pay the toll" by answering a riddle.

    Start dinner conversations. Place a riddle, scrambled word or rebus at each guest's place at the table, along with one of these darling Thanksgiving place cards. After a toast or grace, go around the table asking riddles. Or, have a contest to see who can solve his scrambled word or rebus first. The winner gets an extra piece of pie. Alternatively, place the riddles and puzzles in a jar and pass it around the table.

    Keep the kids busy. Tell the kids they have to solve all the scrambled words before they can eat. Just kidding. Maybe. But do use them to keep kids busy instead of listening to them ask when dinner is going to be ready.

    Laugh yourselves silly after eating too much. Place the individual charades clues in a hat or bowl and have a rollicking good time. Don't know how to play charades? Find instructions here.

    If you want more rebus puzzles, we've got more printable sheets in our Lunch Box Wuzzles post.

    Answers to scrambled words: stuffing, gravy, pumpkin pie, cranberries, green beans, gathering, cooking, casserole, turkey, thankful, Mayflower, pilgrims, overeat, cornucopia, harvest, families

    Answers to rebuses: falling leaves, green beans, talk turkey, count your blessings, mashed potatoes, clean up, thankful, sweet potato

    MORE:

    • Word games for kids
    • Waiting games to keep kids busy
    • Thanksgiving picture books
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