Thankful Tree

Oct 3, 201945 min activity

Gratitude includes both the way we feel and express our thankfulness; it means we show our appreciation for others. In Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Daniel Tiger and his friends love to celebrate Neighborhood Thank You Day. It's a special day when they can say thank you and show gratitude to all the people they love. They sing songs, write thank you notes, and have a Thank You Day party. Miss Elaina is thankful to her parents for teaching her how to play the cymbals and Daniel Tiger is thankful to Mr. McFeely for delivering the mail. All of the neighbors are thankful for each other.

After watching the Daniel Tiger videos, ask your child how Daniel Tiger and his friends showed their neighbors that they were grateful. Then ask your child to think of people or things that they are grateful for. Create a thankful tree for your own Thank You Day - or Thanksgiving - celebration.

Materials

Directions

Using a pencil or crayons, draw 25 leaf shapes onto your colored paper. Oval or elliptical leaves will be the easiest to cut out, but you could make fancy oak and maple leaves too. You can also draw lines on some of your paper leaves to make them look realistic. You can make your leaves as simple or as fancy as you'd like.

Carefully cut around the drawn leaf shapes on the paper so that you have 25 paper leaves ready for your tree.

Talk with your child about what they're thankful for. Help them write down the different things they are grateful or thankful for on the leaves. Younger children can draw a picture of what they are thankful for on their leaf.

Add glue to the bottom edge of each leaf and attach the leaf to near the top of the tree branches. Do this for all 25 leaves. You may need to hold each leaf to the tree for a few seconds so that the glue can start to set.

Insert the tree branches with leaves into a vase or other tall container such as an oatmeal canister. You may want to add marbles, small rocks, or crumpled up newspaper to help the tree branches stay in place.

Once your tree is complete, display it on your Thanksgiving table so your guests can admire all the wonderful things your family is grateful for this holiday season.