The Thanksgiving Tree
QUESTION
We saw a picture of a Thanksgiving Tree on your website. What is this exactly? How is one made?
ANSWER
A Thanksgiving tree can be drawn, cut out and hung up on the wall. Or you can "pot" a pruned branch in decorated pot full of rocks. Either works well for hanging the "thankful leaves."
Then cut out leaves in fall colors to add to the tree. The fun part is writing something that you are thankful for on each of the leaves. Be sure to include everyone in the fun, even the pizza delivery boy!
At our house, the decorations for Thanksgiving go up when the Halloween decorations get put away. We collect "thankful leaves" during the whole month November. Then we take turns reading the leaves at Thanksgiving Dinner.
Store the tree away and bring it back out next year to add more leaves to it. In some instances there are leaves from relatives and/or friends who have since passed away. This makes the tree even more special.
Need an idea for a classroom or a group of kids? A great twist to the Thanksgiving Tree is the Thanksgiving Wreath. Have available cut out leaves or paper with leaf stencils and paper plates with circle removed from the centers. Kids can color or paint it however they wish. Help the kids write something they're thankful for on several leaves. Paste those all around their wreath. Send home extra leaves to involve the whole family.
--Kas
Printer-friendly version- Send to friend
- Login or register to post comments
Kas Winters
Kas Winters, the "Mother of Family Ideas", provides resources to help families thrive. An author, illustrator, publisher and public speaker, this grandmother creates books, offers hundreds of family activity articles on her website and does workshops for parents and children. She also represents almost 70 other authors and helps writers get their words into print.
Kas is passionate about helping children develop a positive self-image, providing hands-on experiences that give them confidence, and building strong supportive relationships. Her basic philosophy is that children learn best when they think they are having fun and her book, "Mother Lode" includes more than 5,000 simple, activities for toddlers through teens making learning on any topic enjoyable and developing children's imaginations. Her ideas use everyday materials, usually free, which helps to make parenting easy. Kas has been the resident "family activities expert" on Pregnancy.org for a couple of years.
Related Content
- Activity Idea For Small Kids on Thanksgiving
- Getting Children Involved in the Community
- Children and Giving: Countering Holiday Ads
- Encouraging Giving Instead of Gimme
- Applause Please, Kids Can Make Gifts!
- Choosing Toys for Babies
- Celebrating Planet Earth with Your Kids
- Ten Ways to Say "I Love You" to Your Child on Valentine's Day
