Thankful Trees

We made Thankful trees today (inspired by my friend Shawna's hand trees). It was a perfect activity for all the kids. I simply asked them what they were thankful for and wrote it down on colored construction paper. I then cut out the words out in the shapes of leaves. I traced their arm and hand as the tree trunk. Then they glued the leaves to the tree.

I was so impressed the the children came up with unique answers almost every time. I expected for all the kids to say the same thing, but more often than not, they said something totally different than the person prior.

I've been wanting to do some sort of thankful tradition - write on a table cloth each year, laminate centerpiece leaves...I'm not sure what I'll do. But I know it would be so much fun to be able to look back years from now and see what the kids were thankful for.

Oh, and then, to make this craft even more fun, Emmett asked if he could mail his tree to Nana. So that is what we did. He said it was his way of saying "thank you!" We also mailed my nanny girl's tree to her parents. Why not?! It's always fun to get non-bill mail!