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Give Thanks for Each Day Thankful Tree

Give Thanks for Each Day Thankful Tree

I’m excited to share this project with you today.  Thanksgiving is a great holiday to eat (and eat some more), spend time with family and be thankful for all of the blessings you have in your life.  This is something we have to teach our kids – most probably view Thanksgiving as just another party or gathering if they aren’t taught the meaning behind the holiday.  

In our family we read a lot of books – now that the kids are in school we order from their Scholastic book orders almost monthly and expand our home library.  I personally love seasonal and holiday books.  

Today’s project is based on the book  “Give Thanks for Each Day” by  Steve Metzger.  The book lists and illustrates things to be thankful for every day.  It helped the kids understand more about being thankful and that you can be thankful for just about anything!

Our Thankful Tree

I decided that it would be fun to create a large Thankful tree using our handprints for leaves.  Most of leaves are the kids hands but I also include one each from myself and Hubby.

Materials Needed

  • Large piece of white paper
  • Pencil
  • Brown paint
  • Paint brushes
  • Construction paper (green, yellow, red, orange)
  • Scissors
  • Black Marker
  • Glue Stick

Instructions

  • First I traced a general outline of a tree on the paper
  • Next Buddy and I painted the tree brown

  • Read the book – Give Thanks for Each Day
  • Brainstorm ideas and make a list of things you are thankful for
  • Trace and cut out enough handprints to make the number of items on your thankful list

  • Write the things you are thankful for – one per each handprint
  • Use the gluestick and adhere the handprints to the tree
  • Stand back and admire your beautiful creation!

This activity was great for the kids fine motor skills.  Buddy cut out two handprints and Boo Boo cut out 7 or 8.  Practicing scissor work in a fun way is a great way to help improve that skill.

The kids came up with some great things to be thankful for – most of our list was family with a few fun things like ice cream, pizza, trains and our sand boat thrown in there!

I would love to hear if your family has any traditions that you use each year to help practice being thankful.

This post is part of Kids are Thankful Blog Hop. Find more Thanksgiving books and fun crafts and activities.

 

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Shannon A: My name is Shannon and I look forward to sharing some of my life with you! I am an Event Manager turned part time working mom trying to wrangle two kids, a dog, a bunny, a husband and my blog! I have a degree in Sports, Entertainment, and Event Management and worked in the hotel industry but realized the hours weren’t conducive to having a family and giving them the attention that I wanted.

View Comments (2)

  • We love that book! We've never made a handprint tree though. That is such a cute idea! Thank you for sharing at the #Made4Kids Link Party!

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