Give Thanks! A Thanksgiving Tree

I know you've probably already started to deck the halls, but we are still in full Thanksgiving mode in the Page household. This week we'll be focusing on giving thanks to God for all of our blessings!

The Book - Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes

Paired with cute and colorful illustrations, this simple poem makes for a sweet read around Thanksgiving. It begins with "Thanks for Thanksgiving" and moves into fall, school, playdates, dress-up, and eventually reaches our best blessings - family. The darling pictures are what make the book. They show a loving family enjoying together all those things for which they are most thankful. Written on a level toddlers and preschoolers can understand, this book will help inspire their own list of thanks.

The Craft - A Thankfulness Tree


Remember those leaves I pressed? I finally got around to doing something with them! I read that you could mod podge pressed leaves and they would keep for years, so I pulled out my mod podge and attempted not to pass out from the fumes as I coated each leaf.


I had to wait for the first side to dry and then flipped the leaves and coated the back. This ended up being a 3 or 4 hour process, as the glue dried very slowly.


While we were waiting, Little Page sat down to type up her list of thanks. We had twelve leaves, so she came up with twelve things she was thankful for. I was quite impressed as she spelled "food", "hugs" and "turkey" all by herself. (Yes, turkey. Apparently we have done way too many turkey-themed projects this year.)


Next we mod podged the printed list to the leaves. (The leaves, by the way, turn out great after the mod podge dries. They are bright and shiny and supple!)


Thanks to the nor'easter, we have no shortage of branches in our yard. I found one that worked great as a tree and stuck it in some oasis foam in a small terracotta pot I had on hand. Then I wrapped the pot in fabric leftover from my pumpkins and tied it all up with a brown ribbon.


I then threaded string through each leaf and tied to the branch. This picture doesn't show it very clearly, but the tree turned out adorable. It looks just like a fall tree, full of bright leaves displaying all those things for which we are most thankful... even turkeys.