Gratitude Wheel (free PDF)

 I was looking online for Thanksgiving/gratitude crafts for my kids to do during Thanksgiving break (since they are losing interest in our gratitude tree that we've done for several years) and found the idea to order Thankful Wheels or Gratitude Wheels. I wasn't sure if they would get here in time and spent way too much time designing my own with my limited photo shopping skills and thought I would share it here for anyone else who needs something to entertain their kids during Thanksgiving break...

Toddler Craft: Turkey

My husband loves to encourage our 2 year old to say "gobble gobble" whenever I call her a turkey (which tends to happen a lot). It's so darn cute, and often puts me in a better mood, because a toddler saying "gobble gobble" is just about the cutest thing in the world. So, a turkey craft is perfect for any little turkey in your life!

All you need is: construction paper, glue, scissors, and googly eyes.

Family Hand-Print Turkey

There's nothing quite like kids' hand-prints to preserve just how little they were as they grew up, which is why I fell in love with the idea of a family hand-print turkey!

I can't wait to frame our turkey so I can pull it out year after year and remember how small (or big in the case of my 9 year old!) my kids' hands were in the year 2016. Look at the tiny purple hand of my 2 year old!

We traced each of our hands on construction paper. Then I traced a cup for the body of the turkey and free-handed the neck/head and beak. I printed out the "Thankful for Family" and "2016" on a piece of card stock and glued it all together.

Thank you Mainly Homemade for the cute idea! I will treasure this for years to come.

Gratitude Tree

We’ve done gratitude trees in the past (2010, and 2012), but I was still surprised at how adamant my boys were about making gratitude trees this year…they both wanted to make their own so we have two trees reminding us of all of our blessings this Thanksgiving season…
This year, we put the scripture Psalms 107:1 on a paper inside the vase: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

Super simple to make, and a great physical way to take note of everything we have to be grateful for. So far this year, my boys are grateful for: parents, Duke (the dog), Jesus, Holy Ghost, God, family, the sun, earth and moon, mom, dad, brothers, and friends.

One of my favorite parts of these trees is that as the trees outside grow bare, and everything seems to die, our little trees grow with blessings and become full.

I’ll be linking up to: Works For Me Wednesday,  Mom’s Library, Let's Hear it For the Boy! Clever Chicks Blog Hop,Share it Saturday, Fine Craft Guild, Share Wednesdays, TGIF. Kids Get Crafty, The Mommy Club

Thankful Tree

Last week, I raced outside, gathered a few sticks and shoved them into a vase so that we could make ourselves a Thankful Tree…

Despite the fact that I’m terribly forgetful about adding leaves to our tree, I have enjoyed seeing a visual reminder on our table of all of the things we are grateful for as a family. Some of the things my boys are grateful for are: large vehicles, doggie, blankie, cars, family, and our “hause”…

This would be a great activity to do with a large crowd on Thanksgiving Day or in the days leading up to it. Just cut out some colorful leaves, write what you’re thankful for, and hot glue them to some branches.

Gratitude Tree

When your family gathers around the table this Thanksgiving, it might be fun to have everyone contribute a few leaves to a gratitude tree...just cut out some leaves before-hand and put some at each setting with a pen or marker.

It will be so much fun to compare and share what everyone is grateful for, and throughout the rest of the meal everyone will have a visual reminder!

Pinecone Turkeys

I love crafts that you can make with things either already in your home or found in nature…pinecone turkeys are one such craft. For the past few weeks my boys and I have been collecting pinecones, leaves and acorns on our walks and we finally had what we needed to assemble a couple of turkeys!

This works best if you have smaller pinecones that have one side that is a little flatter so they can sit. Use hot glue to glue the acorn onto the front and dried, pressed leaves in between some of the pinecone sections, and draw some eyes on the acorns. Now you have some super cute little turkeys…perfect for decorating your Thanksgiving table!

I’m linking up to 3 Boys and a Dog, Thanksgiving Ideas Link Party, Holiday Link Up, Sunday Link Love, Fun Stuff Fridays, Thanksgiving Traditions,

Bottle Cap Turkeys

This isn’t what it looks like…I swear! My husband loves fancy sodas in glass bottles and usually gets some for his birthday each year. I’ve been saving bottle caps for quite a while and am now finally working through the stash :).

These little turkeys would be so cute on goodie plates or thank-you gifts for friends or teachers. They would also look darling on napkin rings at your Thanksgiving table!

The best part about these cute little turkeys is that you can use a variety of materials for the tail feathers, which means just about anyone can make these if they have a few bottle caps lying around. All you need is some paint, hot glue and tail feathers (leaves, feathers, ribbon, construction paper, whatever!). I made these with my 4 year old and it was a fun bonding time while his little brother slept.

I’m linking up to What Are Little Boys Made Of? Thanksgiving Ideas Link Party, Making it With Allie, Get Your Brag On, Crafty Soiree, Show Off Your Stuff, 3 Boys and a Dog, Fun Stuff Fridays, Thanksgiving Traditions, and Strut Your Stuff.

Gratitude Tree

On Monday night, we had Family Home Evening, where we had a quick lesson about gratitude and what Thanksgiving is all about.

For the activity, we printed out several pages of leaves, colored them and wrote, or told Mommy & Daddy what to write, things we are grateful for. I gathered several sticks outside and taped the leaves to those sticks, and now we have a tree reminding us of how much we have to be grateful for.
I’ll be honest, I felt like the whole thing was a flop ending in tears and frustration because it didn’t go as planned, but K has asked several times about the tree, and each time I look at it, I am reminded about the many blessings I have in my life.

I am so blessed to have the beautiful boys I have, the loving husband who hugs and kisses me every day, the home we live in. We truly are so blessed!

Thank you Skip to My Lou & Everyday Mom Ideas for the inspiration!

I'm linking up to Crafty Soiree @ Yesterday on Tuesday, Crazy Cute Link Party @ Between U & Me, and  Thrilling Thursday @ Paisley Passions.

Pinecone Turkey

Does anyone else remember making pinecone turkeys in elementary school? I think we used construction paper for the feathers…

If you don’t have construction paper, all you need are bits of nature to make your own cute little pinecone turkey!

K has been collecting pinecones all summer and he was more than thrilled to collect various colorful leaves on a recent walk around the neighborhood. Kids can do a lot of the work including collecting supplies and if they’re old enough, the gluing.
Once your leaves have been pressed in a phone book or other heavy book for a few days, have your child glue or tell you where to glue the leaves to create a colorful tail.
Glue a small stick on the front for the neck and using two tabs from another pinecone or something like an acorn, glue that onto the stick. A piece of a red leaf glued to the bottom of the head will work great as a wattle!
These can make cute little center pieces for your Thanksgiving feast or you can release them back into the wild :)

I’m linking up to Tot Tuesdays @ Delicious Ambiguity, Creative Share Blog Hop @ Trendy Treehouse, Strut Your Stuff Party @ Saturday Mornings, and Works For Me Wednesday @ We Are That Family.