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It can be really special to hear directly from kids what they’re most thankful for. This Thankful Tree craft for kids is a great way to teach them about gratitude and tie it to the Thanksgiving season.
This craft makes a great keepsake or can be a fun classroom disply. Not only are they learning about the changing seasons, but it’s a visual way to tie the season and weather changing to a lesson around gratitude.
What is a Thankful Tree?
A thankful tree is sometimes called a gratitude tree, or a blessings tree and is a fun way for kids to share what they’re most thankful for. it’s a craft and activity where they write on leaves the things that are most important to them. And yes, pizza counts. 🙂 You can also use a turkey template to create a thankful turkey, or grab a paper plate and some paint to make a grateful turkey paper plate craft!
Supplies for your Thankful Tree Craft
- Tree Template
- Leaves Template (I scaled this to 50% before printing, more on this below!)
- Construction paper scraps or cardstock
- Markers, crayons or paint
- Glue stick
Steps for A Gratitude Tree
Print out your tree template and your leaves. Trace onto cardstock paper and cut out. You can also color or make these on your own! I used our leaf template and in my print screen window had it scaled to 50%. You can adapt this to any size you want.
Have kids write out what they’re most thankful for. Be sure to write exactly what they say even if it seems small or silly. That’s what makes this such a great keepsake!
Glue your tree and the leaves onto the paper with a glue stick. Let kids place the leaves where they want them to be ‘falling.’
Add a message on the paper indicating that it’s a gratitude tree, or the year, the child’s name, etc.
Tips and Display Ideas
- Use leftover scraps of paper from other projects.
- If you’re making this with a younger child who can’t cut with scissors yet, it may be helpful to prep the leaf pieces.
- If a child isn’t able to write yet, help them by listening to what they list and writing those items onto the leaves.
- Pick fun colors to tie this craft into the fall season.
Printables
I used pages from our tree template and our autumn leaves template. Below are each of the individual pages I pulled out. When printing the leaves, I scaled the printing job to 50% so that they would be smaller. You can adapt the size to what’s easiest for kiddos to write on.
This printable download has the page with the tree outline, and this printable leaf page includes 5 leaf shapes that you’ll scale when printing.
Looking for more Fall crafts for kids?
- Fall Bucket List- Free Printable and Ideas for Kids
- Jack-O-Lantern Craft
- Pumpkin Outline
- Owl Template
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Get the How-To
Supplies
- 3 pieces cardstock (in fall colors)
- 1 gluestick
- 1 marker or pen
- 1 piece white cardstock
Instructions
- Print out your tree template and your leaves. Trace onto cardstock paper and cut out. You can also color these or freehand these. I used our leaf template and in my print screen window had it scaled to 50%. You can adapt this to any size you want.
- Have kids write out what they're most thankful for. Be sure to write exactly what they say even if it seems small or silly. That's what makes this such a great keepsake!
- Glue your tree and the leaves ont othe paper with a glue stick. Let kids place the leaves where they want them to be 'falling'.
- Add a message on the paper indicating that it's a thankful tree, the year, or the child's name.