Thankfulness Activities for Elementary Students with Fall Leaves & Turkeys
Thanksgiving Craftivities: Thankfulness Paper Bag Turkey & Gratitude Hand Print Tree
Let your kids express gratitude with these cute fall Thankfulness Activities for Elementary Students (and younger kids too!)
It seems like as soon as Halloween is over, we all turn our attention straight to Christmas, often completely bypassing the season of thankfulness. For many, Thanksgiving is turning into “Friendsgiving” as families are spread far apart. The Thanksgiving holiday has become more of a secular celebration of friendship than of a holiday full of gratitude for our many blessings.
As a way to turn our children’s attention toward the blessings they’ve received, I’ve created two no-stress, printable Thankfulness Activities for Elementary students (and younger ones, too!) that will occupy their attention while you attend to the turkey and the football game.
In this downloadable, printable Thanksgiving Thankfulness Craftivities Pack you’ll find all the printables you’ll need to create both the Gratitude Handprint Tree and the Thankfulness Turkey as well as 5 different Turkey & Thanksgiving writing prompt & coloring pages, and a blank “I’m Thankful for…” page.
Extend Your Thanksgiving Lessons with these Extra Ideas
You and your kids may also want to use this printable gratitude pumpkin as a way of expressing gratefulness.
It’s easier to be grateful when we are feeling happy. Have your kids learn some of these turkey jokes to tell to family and friends to release some of those happy endorphins.
Let your kids follow these instructions to create a fall yarn tree, which goes perfectly with the Autumn book, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert.
Your youngest kids will love these Printable Thanksgiving Hats in four different styles: Native American, Pilgrim Boy or Girl, and Turkey.
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Library List for Learning about Thankfulness
A Very Thankful Prayer: A Fall Poem of Blessings and Gratitude (A Time to Pray) by Bonnie Rickner Jensen and the interactive board book version: A Very Thankful Prayer Seek and Find
Pumpkin Day at the Zoo by Susan Meissner
The Pumpkin Patch Parable: Special Edition by Liz Curtis Higgs
Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving: A Harvest Story from Colonial America of How One Native American’s Friendship Saved the Pilgrims by Eric Metaxas
Being Thankful (Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter) by Mercer Mayer
Directions for the Gratitude Handprint Tree Craftivity
Materials Needed:
First, print out the base “Handprint Tree” page and the Leaves page. Let your child color the leaves in fall colors with crayons or colored pencils. After the leaves are colored in, have them cut out the leaves.
Next, have your child trace around their hand and wrist on the brown construction paper. If you don’t have any brown construction paper on hand, just use a regular piece of paper. Now, let them cut out the hand, which will be the tree.
Now, your older kids can write the names of things for which they are grateful or thankful. Help your preschoolers and early elementary kiddos by asking them “For what are you grateful?” and writing the words on their leaves for them.
Finally, have them glue the handprint tree to the base “Handprint Tree” page and then glue the leaves onto the branches (their fingers) of the tree. Let them write their name and the year and hang it up to display (probably on the fridge, right?).
Directions for the Thankfulness Paper Bag Turkey
Materials Needed:
First, print out 2 copies of the Turkey feathers page. Let your child color the feathers in fall colors with crayons or colored pencils. After the feathers are colored in, have them cut out the feathers.
Now, let your child select which “turkey face” they want to use and print out that page. Then they can color, cut out the face, and glue it onto the square bottom of the bag.
Next, print out the Bible verse about Thankfulness that you want to use. Have your child cut it out and glue it onto the body of the turkey bag.
Finally, let your child (or help your younger kids) write things for which they are thankful on the turkey feathers. Finish by gluing the feathers to the turkey bag, facing the front.
Thanksgiving Craftivities: Thankfulness Paper Bag Turkey & Gratitude Hand Print Tree Printables
There is an additional “I’m Thankful” blank notebooking page in this printable pack for your older kids to fill out if they think they are too old to make a Gratitude Tree or Thankfulness Turkey
There are also five Thanksgiving Turkey coloring scenes to use as writing prompts as a part of the Thankfulness Activities for Elementary students.
More Thanksgiving Thankfulness Activities for Elementary Students
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