Thankfulness: The Thankfulness Tree

As I mentioned last week, the character trait theme of the month is: Thankfulness.  Here is one idea to help you and your family focus on thankfulness this month: The Thankfulness Tree.

Directions for The Thankfulness Tree:

1.  I went out into our yard and found a branch.  We don't actually have many trees in our yard, but my dad had chopped a dead one down earlier in the summer and I was able to make use of part of that for this project!  I'm sure all of you have someplace you can find a branch!
2. I googled "maple leaf template" and found this link. I printed it out on my computer and then I printed it again, this time on cardstock.  (Learn from me and do this the first time!)  There is also this link, which offers some other leaf-shapes.  You could also totally make these free-hand or even as you're cutting them out, but I thought I'd share some templates with you just in case you are not confident in your leaf-shape-cutting skills. :)  Also- rather than printing onto cardstock, you could print onto regular paper, cut it out, trace it onto cardboard, and then cut that out, and voila, you have yourself a lovely leaf template. :)  I cut mine right out of the cardstock.  Not as nice and thick as cardboard, but it gets the job done.  Some of you may even be lucky enough to own some sort of large leaf stencil.  We have TONS of stencils, and we had some leaves but they were all too small.
3. Obviously, after you make the template, the next step is to trace it onto paper.  I used some cute fall-colored scrapbook paper, because I have a RIDICULOUS amount of scrapbook paper that I need to use up.  Any paper will do, though.  I also traced mine on the back of the paper so you wouldn't see my lines on the front.
4. Next I cut it out, and went to find Phoebe.  I asked her what something was that she was thankful for and she said "Bubby" (her blanket).  So I wrote Bubby on the leaf with a sharpie.
5. I punched a hole in the leaf, put a little string through and hung it on the tree.  Doesn't it look lovely? Actually, you can hardly see it but it's on the top right in the pictures.  Hopefully we'll be able to add a lot more to this!

I will present this tree to my whole family tonight at dinner, and I'm sure Naomi will be more than willing to trace and cut out millions of leaves for us.  Then maybe I'll put them in a little basket so we can add to our tree frequently!  We should make a goal for how many we want on our tree by the end of November...how about 50?  That sounds good for our family.  

What's a good number for your family?

*Tip: Make sure YOU'RE using the tree too!  This isn't just for kids. :)

**Tip #2: I've also seen this project done with a large cutout paper tree that you can tape leaves to, or write right on the tree!  Find a way that works for you, and then share!  I'd love to hear about it.

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