The Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving are some of the trickiest days of the whole school year. Kids are excited, a chunk of your class is already gone, and nobody wants to start a new unit.
The best Thanksgiving multiplication activities for those days are low-prep review games, like self-checking multiplication mazes, that keep kids practicing their facts without introducing anything new.
I’m Tina Kolley, and in over 20 years of teaching upper elementary, I always saved those three days for centers, partner work and lots of review. Multiplication mazes were part of the mix every single year.
In this post, I’m going to show you exactly how I used them, plus a free set of Thanksgiving multiplication mazes you can print today.
Why the Days Before Thanksgiving Are Perfect for Multiplication Review
A lot of districts now take the whole week off for what I call No School November. If yours doesn’t, you know how those last three days feel. In Alaska, the Ketchikan superintendent called Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week “our two lowest attendance days” when his board voted for a full Thanksgiving week off in 2024.
In my fifth grade classroom, I’d usually have about 3/4 of my students those days. Starting new content with a quarter of the class missing? No thank you. Instead, I used the time for independent work, partner work and review. (You’ll find more ideas for the month in my November lesson plan ideas.)
Here’s what I think teachers and parents get wrong about math practice before a holiday break. We treat it like a lost cause. But let’s be honest about where everyone is:
“We are all frazzled. Our brains are fried. We are done and we need a break. And that includes parents, homeschoolers, kids and teachers.”
Tina Kolley, Teach With Tina
That’s exactly why skill practice and review are the sweet spot. Kids are still using their brains, but you’re not taxing them the way a brand new concept would. If they’re heading home for a long four-day weekend, let’s send them home with a very full brain! If facts are still shaky, these multiplication facts practice strategies pair perfectly with review week.
What Are Thanksgiving Multiplication Mazes?
Thanksgiving multiplication mazes are puzzles where kids follow correct multiplication facts from Start to Finish. Here’s how they work:
- Start at the square labeled Start.
- Look at the squares touching it: up, down, left or right (no diagonal moves!).
- Find the square with the correct multiplication fact and mark it.
- Keep going until you reach Finish. There is only one path.
My free Thanksgiving set is a 10-page printable PDF. It includes:
- Maze 1: Multiply by 5 (a friendly warm-up)
- Maze 2: Mixed Facts (a challenge with facts from 2 to 12)
- Bonus Multiplication Tricks for the 2s through 10s, including the 9s finger trick
- Answer keys for both mazes
The mazes are made for grades 3 to 5. Under the Common Core math standards, kids are expected to know all products of two one-digit numbers from memory by the end of third grade, so this is the perfect review for third graders and a great refresher for fourth and fifth. A third grader will probably take 15 to 20 minutes per maze, especially if they need to go back and find a mistake.
🎁 Free Download: Grab my free Thanksgiving multiplication mazes and print them before the chaos starts.
Why Self-Checking Mazes Beat Another Worksheet
Self-checking mazes solve a problem every teacher knows. How many times have you had this conversation?
“Did you check your work?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Did you check your work?”
“Yes, I did!”
And not always. With a regular worksheet, a student can fill in every answer, hand it in and never know a single one was wrong.
A maze won’t let them do that. If a student hits a dead end or doesn’t land on Finish, they know something is off. They have to go back and recheck their facts, and they do it without you saying a word. That’s one of the results I love most about these mazes. Kids find their own mistakes, fix them and try again.
It still gives them plenty of practice; it just doesn’t feel like a worksheet. If you’re looking for more ways to shake up practice pages, here are 7 easy ways to make math worksheets fun.
5 Easy Ways to Use Thanksgiving Multiplication Activities
Thanksgiving multiplication activities fit almost anywhere in a short holiday week. Here’s how I used the mazes.
1. Morning Work
Put a maze on each desk before the bell. Kids can get started on their own as they come in, which makes for a calm start to a not-so-calm week.
2. Fast Finishers
I always had mazes out for students to grab after their regular work was done. It’s amazing what getting to play a game after you finish your work can do for a kid’s motivation. Need more options? Here are my favorite fast finisher ideas.
3. Thanksgiving Math Centers
We did a lot of centers those three days, in math and even social studies, just to get kids moving and doing something fun and different. A maze station is easy to prep. It also felt like a little reward for the kids who were in school.
4. Partner Practice
My favorite way to run the mazes is in groups of 2 or 4. I often partnered kids at different levels, so they could help each other. When a pair hits a dead end, they go back and recheck together.
5. At Home or Homeschool Review
Parents and homeschoolers need a break too! A maze is a quick, fun way to keep facts fresh during the holiday week without a full lesson. If your child is still learning their facts, these tips for learning multiplication at home will help. And if your kids love the mazes, my full Multiplication Mazes resource has a maze for every fact family from 0 to 12, plus digital Google versions.
My Favorite Tip: Light X First, Color Second
Kids LOVE coloring the path. But if they color as they go and then hit a dead end, those colored squares can’t be erased. That gets frustrating fast.
Try This: The Light X Trick
- Work through the maze with a pencil, marking each correct square with a very light X.
- Hit a dead end? Erase, recheck and try again.
- Once you reach Finish, color the path in any color you like.
This little change does two things. First, mistakes don’t show, and some students get stressed when their mistakes are on display. Second, the coloring becomes the calm, relaxing part at the end. Sometimes I’d even hang the ones colored in a really nice, neat pattern up on the board. (Coloring and math are a fun combo. Here’s why I love color by codes in math, too.)
Send Them Home with a Full Brain
The days before Thanksgiving aren’t the time for new content, but they’re a great time for review. A self-checking maze keeps kids practicing, lets them catch their own mistakes and gives everyone (you included) a calmer day.
Your next step: print the mazes now, before the week gets away from you.
Want facts to really stick after the break? My 99 Days to Multiplication Mastery Workbook gives kids in grades 3 to 5 a few minutes of practice a day, at school or at the kitchen table.
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope your kids head into the break with full brains and big smiles.
You may also like these blog posts: when the turkey is gone, here are tips for surviving teaching in December, and for this month, check out my favorite November read alouds for 5th grade.
