As everyone else in US we are gearing for Thanksgiving. Soon after Halloween was over I asked Anna what Thanksgiving is about. After some effort she managed to come up with grandparents are coming, and we will have a big dinner. So we started again with “semi-fiction” books about Thanksgiving. We read Thanksgiving Day by Anne Rockwell last year and revisited it this year. We also read an older book - Our Thanksgiving Book by Jane Belk Moncure (both books 
came from our library). Both books talk about school activities in preparation for Thanksgiving and full of ideas for Thanksgiving crafts. Anna immediately decided on two she really wanted to do – a thankful tree and “Mr Turkey”. I’ve seen beautiful thankful trees on many blogs, and I was planning for a tree with real branches, but since she was anxious to get started on a rainy day I went for a quick tree out of a grocery bag. I bought $1 silk leaves in Target last year, and finally they were good for something. We are adding a few leaves to the tree every day, and Anna writes short words (I help her with spelling) while I write longer words. Her first two thanks were Home and Writing. It’s interesting to see how she 
decides on what she feels thankful for. Sometimes she really thinks about it – parents, playing, toys, not getting lost on the way home (i.e. I am thankful for GPS :))Thanksgiving holiday, cows that give us fresh milk to drink, and sometimes she just looks around and picks objects around her – jump rope, balls, balloons, etc. It’s been several days and her interest in this tree is still going strong. I am looking forward to having a very full thankful tree for Thanksgiving… and then we will do something similar for Christmas :)
Share your books and story stretchers with StArt hosted by A Mommy’s Adventures.
Posts
12 comments:
Nice! I really like the tree and Anna's comments on what she is thankful for.
I like the idea of doing something similar for Christmas! I have often thought it would be nice to have a year round thankful tree.
It's great that Anna is still interested in the tree.
We are reading the Rockwell book too.
I like what you did with your Thanksgiving tree craft. We will make ours on Thanksgiving Day.
LOVE that Thanksgiving book, sadly, it is one of the few that we were not able to get this year from our library--too many requests. It is a good one though.
I find the younger children have and easier time picking things to be thankful for, than the older ones. I think as we get older, we overthink it :)
I too am thankful for GPS :)
My kids are still trying to insist it's Halloween time.
This is a great idea! We did something similar - like a wreath out of a paper plate, and the leaves around it listed all the things they were thankful for. But I lOVE the idea of the tree - so that it can be added onto as the kids think of it! This is our next project - thank you!
This is a great idea. I was asking Selena the other day what she was Thankful for after talking about Thanksgiving and reading a book together, she just said, "I don't know." Just not there yet I guess.
I hope you are able to read "In November", definitely my favorite. I thought of putting our thankful tree on the wall this year, I saw a beautiful one on someone's blog last year... But I realiezed I needed to keep it on the table, as New Kid loves to rip things off the wall!! I love what you did.
Thanks for reminding me that we need to MAKE our Thankful tree! I think it's such a nice way to celebrate Thanksgiving, and I like Christy's idea of a year-round thankful tree.
The books look interesting, I'll have to see if our library has them.
I am very thankful for GPS =)
I love tree. It is such a great idea. It can be added to any time.
Very cute!
Maggy
Kids Get Crafty link up party
We just started our tree yesterday though I had planned to start it on the 1st.
Post a Comment