MATERIALS:
- Colored paper
- Scissors
- Tape
- Pen
Steps:
1) Fold paper accordion-style, leaving it the width you want for your leaves. We folded our paper in fourths.
2) Cut out leaf shapes, paper doll style (so that at least one leaf on each side rests on the fold so they stay attached). Emma maintains that some of my “leaves” are actually flowers. I see her point…
3) Hang on wall and admire.
4) Assign one leaf to each day, and write one thing you are grateful for each day. I have 36 leaves. Assuming they all stay intact between now and the end of the month, there are enough to bring us through December 6th. This happens to be the Second Sunday of Advent this year and therefore a fitting day to switch over to a Christmas theme, if I decide to continue this for another month.
I gave Emma and Johnny additional leaves on which they inscribed their own mysterious messages to display alongside our gratitude chain:
I will probably also do the Thankful Hands activity I did with Emma and Johnny last year a little closer to Thanksgiving.
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Such a fun simple craft to do with young children.
This reminds me of a co-op class I taught one time with a dozen or so 10-year-old boys. I wrote a word on the board and they were supposed to come up with things they were thankful for starting with each letter in the word. They started off on the right track but the longer we went the more random their suggestions were. Soon they were just blurting out all kinds of nouns starting with that letter. It was quite hilarious!
(I was going to also leave a comment on your Thankful Hands post but the comment field wasn’t there. It is, obviously, on this one. So strange!)
That’s really funny!
And I’m sorry about the comment issues. I need to get to the bottom of that.
Your gratitude activities are wonderful, MaryAnne … how great that your kids are encouraged to be grateful from a young age! I featured your posts and gratitude chain photo in my November Family Gratitude Activities post at http://raisingfigureskaters.com/2012/10/31/november-family-gratitude-activities/
Happy New Year
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what a great crafting idea, looks fun too!
This is a fun idea!
Great idea, and I really like thankful hands too. I think it’s time to start working on our Thanksgiving crafts :)
What fun! I love the photo of them admiring their work. So cute!! We’ll be doing a gratitude craft soon too. They are a lot of fun!
This is a really lovely idea! :)
Great idea! Look like fun!
Love the ‘admire’ shot. :) It looks like they are well out of reach, yet your mama insight makes me laugh, ‘assuming they all stay intact…’ So much to be thankful for!!!!!!!!
Cute idea.
What a cute craft and a great teaching tool, too!
this is so cute, such a great idea! thanks