peppysis: dc thankful tree

Every day at the day care, as we all sit down to eat lunch together, we go around the table and name something that each of us is thankful for before we say the blessing. Some of the kids say the same thing pretty much every day and some of the others say very spur of the moment things. While looking around the world of blogs, I found a site that used a "thankful tree" for her family and each day during the month of November they list what they are thankful for and place it on their tree. I thought this would be a wonderful project for my day care kids.

This morning we traced hands on card stock to get a good template and while they were playing outside, I traced hands on colored paper and cut out just enough for today. At lunch time I wrote down what each of them were thankful for and after lunch, wrote it on their hand cut outs and taped them to the wall around our thankful tree.

My plan as of right now is to let each child draw their own tree on poster board and place all of their hands of what they are thankful for to take home with them the day before Thanksgiving. I think it would be neat for their families to see what all they have named that they are thankful for. So sweet.

We also read a really nice library book today by P.K. Hallinan called "I'm thankful for so many things." It gave them a touch of inspiration and me a whole bunch more than a touch. I nearly teared up reading it to them and wouldn't mind having this one on hand. Such wonderful illustrations and and truths in thankfulness.