The thankful tree! A fun homeschool activity

The thankful tree is such a simple and FUN homeschool activity you can do with your children of all ages.

This is coming from a homeschool mom who is admittedly not very “crafty”. Trust me, you can do this!

With just a few simple elements, you too can create an easy and fun thankfulness tree.

This has turned into one of our favorite thanksgiving homeschool activities. We started making our own thankful trees 4 years ago and have done it slightly different every year, but the elements remain the same. 

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Let’s get into it!

A Background Material

Depending on the size you want, you’ll need a background paper. Construction paper works fine, but I’ve found really large rolls of paper from the newspaper printing company in our town.

If you’ve never checked into it, you may be surprised to find some at your own local newspaper company! Go ahead and give them a call.

Other sources of really large backgrounds may include: tagboard, bulletin board, and even fabric. Don’t overthink it, just pick something pretty and go with it. 

The Base Tree

Next up, you need a tree trunk. This has looked different from year to year, but the element remains the same.

I prefer making a “close-up” version of a tree trunk, simply because I’m trying to not take forever to make this part.

If you have more patience for it, please enjoy the process. You could do a quick paint on your tag board or paper, but other options may include: contact paper, fabric, or colored pencils and markers. 

*If you did fabric for everything, you could reuse this thankful tree craft next year! Now that’s frugal.

Fall Leaves

Next on the list is paper leaves. These don’t exactly have to be paper, but you’ll want plenty of them to go around. Kids are AWESOME at finding things to be thankful for.

We enjoy doing one for each kid, every morning during the thanksgiving season. So, add up how many kids you have, and multiply it by the number of days you will do this and make that many.

Don’t forget to make some for you too! The kids are always wondering what I’ll put on my paper leaf.

It’s a great way to kick off the holiday season with something so rich and joy-filled.

If you like the idea of using paper (in a fall color of course), then you can just cut some out of paper in simple leaf shapes.

Keep in mind younger kiddos need a little more room for writing, so make sure some leaves are on the bigger side.

Other options for thankful tree leaves may include: felt cutouts, small wooden shapes, fall stickers, and even decorative leaves. 

Along with our gratitude tree, we love to include a few pumpkins and gourds along the bottom of the page for extra decoration.

This of course is up to you, but we love our thankful pumpkins. 

The Finishing Touch

The final touch, if you so choose, is to include a gratitude poem or verse on your page to keep reminding everyone about the thanksgiving story.

It’s so important to be reminded why we celebrate thanksgiving day. We must remember just how blessed we are. 

Some of the wording we have chosen to include in our family thanksgiving tree are as follows…

“Blessings are like leaves that fall… we could never ever count them all.”

“Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!”

“God I keep counting my blessings… knowing I can’t count that high.”

or simply “Give Thanks!”

You could choose to just do this during the week of thanksgiving, but we typically will do it the whole month of November.

It’s even more fun if we can include all of the family members and do it with the entire family. If you do this only the last week before thanksgiving day, just be sure to double up on the amount of leaves everyone does so it looks so full and fun!

And, let’s be honest, we can all think of lots of things to be thankful for.

God is so good!

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Modifications for Different Ages

Early learners will definitely be the most excited for this thanksgiving craft, but older kids will likely enjoy it as well.

If you have older kids who aren’t particularly enthused about the idea of doing this, then perhaps you could talk them into keeping a gratitude journal during this time as a way to express gratitude in a slightly different way.

We all want to have peaceful homeschooling atmospheres, right?

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As you’re getting ready to enjoy your pumpkin pie after the thanksgiving meal, I hope you will feel as though you have been truly ruminating on the richness of God’s blessings.

This wonderful thanksgiving tradition will bring to the forefront of your mind all the good things God has blessed you with, and your children as well.

I hope this becomes one of your favorite thanksgiving traditions. I know it’s definitely one of ours. 

This is the perfect time to cultivate an attitude of gratitude for the whole family. 

Happy thanksgiving!