Thankful Trees

Every year my school hosts a Grandparents luncheon the Friday before Thanksgiving. Each year, the art teacher has been asked to assist with decorations. Traditionally this has been a individual item that the children make as gifts to their visitors.

Being my first year at MIS, I wanted to do something different. As a result of surfing the internet for a really cute craft idea that everyone would love, I found the Thankful Tree. It featured branches in a flower pot with leaves that children wrote a sentence about what they are thankful for. I knew instantly that this was just what I was looking for. This project took about three week total to construct fully working with the kids, and allowing them most of the artistic control.

I recruited the cafeteria to save all of the #10 cans(the large cans that veggies and sauces are shipped in) and pre-cut the leaves from the school's dye-cut and some I hand-traced for variety. The children wrote a sentence that began, "I am thankful for....". I even attended the school's literacy night and invited parents to write on a leaf the same statement and contribute it to the decorations. The following week, they worked in teams using the same leaf shapes as they wrote their statements on, but this time the children traced those leaves on strips of paper and colored the leaves in. The papers were wrapped around the cans and taped off. Finally, branches were collected by several teachers in the school and they were anchored at the bottom of the can with a lump of clay (sand would work just as well).

The project was a great hit. Everyone enjoyed writing a reflective sentence and the visitors thoroughly enjoyed reading the thoughts of the children, even if it wasn't their grandchild. I was especially proud that the project focused on literacy, specifically reading and writing. The teachers seemed to really embrace the idea and asked if I was going to do the same thing next year. The project was definitely fun and artistic, yet related beautifully to many of the academic objectives within our school.