Create a Thanksgiving-themed place mat for each child and adult who attends the party. Cut the place mats out of colored construction paper into shapes like a pilgrim hat, a fall leaf, a turkey or a cornucopia. On the place mat, write a fun fact about the original Thanksgiving in 1621 or provide an interesting piece of information about an important historical figure at that time in history.
With help from the teacher, write a list of questions and answers about Thanksgiving history to use in a bingo game. Create bingo charts on your computer and fill the squares of each one with answers to the questions from your list, making each chart different from the others. As you play the game, allow students to yell the answers as they figure them out, and have small prizes to give out when a student wins.
To disperse some of their excited energy, have the children play a physical game where they get out from behind their seats and interact with each other. Corn Pass is a simple game that only requires one prop per team, and the rules are easy to enforce and understand. Divide the students into equal teams and have them line up standing next to each other. The students have to pass an ear of corn from the first person to the last person in line without using their hands or mouths.
Even if you don't serve a full meal with turkey, sweet potatoes, green beans, corn and pumpkin pie, you can still make the food you serve Thanksgiving-themed. For example, if you make sandwiches, have a turkey-shaped cookie cutter on hand to allow students to cut their sandwiches into one or more small turkeys. You can serve candy corn as a dessert and have apple cider to drink, which will also add a nice fall scent to the classroom.