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...

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!

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.

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