Thanksgiving week is busy, and a stack of Thanksgiving mazes gives children a quiet game while dinner cooks. This free set has six printable mazes: two easy ones for ages 4 to 6, two medium mazes for ages 6 to 8 and two hard mazes for ages 8 and up. Each maze has a story, such as a turkey looking for pie or a squirrel looking for an acorn, and a second page that shows the solution. All the Thanksgiving mazes are free to print.
Quick answer: print one, give the child a pencil and ask them to start at the picture in the top left corner and find a path to the picture in the bottom right corner. Use the easy mazes for ages 4 to 6, the medium mazes for ages 6 to 8 and the hard mazes for ages 8 and up. Page 2 shows the solution in red.
Thanksgiving mazes for kids (PDF)
Six mazes, each a two-page PDF: the maze on page 1 and the solution on page 2. Click a picture to open it.
Which maze is right for your child?
The Thanksgiving mazes go from easy to hard, so choose by age and confidence.
| Maze | Level | Grid size | Route length | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turkey to pie | Easy | 9 by 10 | 38 squares | Ages 4 to 5 |
| Corn to basket | Easy | 9 by 10 | 50 squares | Ages 5 to 6 |
| Acorn to squirrel | Medium | 12 by 14 | 83 squares | Ages 6 to 7 |
| Leaf to pumpkin | Medium | 12 by 14 | 91 squares | Ages 7 to 8 |
| Thanksgiving feast | Hard | 20 by 22 | 181 squares | Ages 8 to 10 |
| Harvest | Hard | 20 by 22 | 233 squares | Ages 9 and up, families |
How to solve a maze
Younger children can trace Thanksgiving mazes with a finger before using a pencil.
- Look at the whole page first. Find the start and the finish before you pick up a pencil.
- Try working backward. Start at the finish and trace toward the start. Dead ends often become obvious.
- Mark dead ends. When a path stops, put a small cross where you turned back.
- Use a pencil with an eraser. Pencil lines make it easy to try again.
- Check the solution. Turn to page 2 and compare your path with the red route.
Why mazes help children
Thanksgiving mazes build fine motor control and patience.
- Fine motor control: keeping a pencil inside the lines builds the control that handwriting needs.
- Planning: looking ahead for dead ends is a basic skill in problem solving.
- Focus: a maze takes several minutes of quiet attention.
- Persistence: a wrong turn is part of the game, so children practice trying again.
Thanksgiving activities to pair with the mazes
Put Thanksgiving mazes next to the place cards at the kids’ table.
- Table game: print a maze for each place setting and finish it before the meal.
- Story time: ask the child to tell a short story about the turkey, the squirrel or the leaf on the way to its goal.
- Race: two children solve the same maze with different colored pencils and compare routes.
- Cousins’ challenge: give older cousins the hard mazes and younger ones the easy mazes at the same table.
- Color the finish: after the maze, color the pie, the pumpkin or the basket at the end.
Tips for using Thanksgiving mazes at different ages
The mazes grow with the child. Four- and five-year-olds do best with the turkey maze. Let them trace the path with a finger first, then with a crayon. Six- and seven-year-olds can try the medium mazes and learn to mark dead ends. Older children enjoy the hard mazes because the paths are long, and they can try solving them backward from the finish. If a child is stuck, let them look at the solution page for one section and then go back to the maze.
How these sheets are made
Every sheet is generated by a program. Each maze is built by a program with a depth-first search, which makes a perfect maze with exactly one route from start to finish. The program then solves the maze itself and draws the red answer path from that solution. The pictures are Noto Emoji artwork from Google, used under the Apache License 2.0; the project is on GitHub. A credit line is printed on every page.
Start with the easiest of the Thanksgiving mazes and work up, so younger children stay confident.
Frequently asked questions
6 quick answers
Are these Thanksgiving mazes free to print?
Yes. Print as many copies as you like for your own children or class, with no account or sign-up.
What age are they for?
The easy mazes suit ages 4 to 6, the medium mazes suit ages 6 to 8 and the hard mazes suit ages 8 and up.
Do the mazes have solutions?
Yes. Page 2 of every PDF shows the solution drawn in red.
Does each maze have only one route?
Yes. Each maze is a perfect maze with exactly one route from the start to the finish, so there is only one right answer.
Where do I start?
Every maze starts at the picture in the top left corner and ends at the picture in the bottom right corner.
Are there other mazes on the site?
Yes. See the printable mazes page for mazes in other themes and levels.
More Thanksgiving puzzles and games
- Printable mazes in other themes and levels.
- Thanksgiving scavenger hunt and Thanksgiving I Spy.
- Thanksgiving spot the difference and Thanksgiving word search.
- Dot to dot printables.
- Printable sudoku.
- Picture bingo for kids.
- Every puzzle and brain teaser on PrintSheetLab.
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