My Giving Tree craft

Crafts don’t always come together the way you think they will.

I had a brilliant idea this morning to make place cards with leaf etchings on them, and I tried it out.

Yikes.

Ugly.

If you come up with something pretty with that idea, let me know. So instead, I decided to post how to make a leafy tree of thankfulness that also goes along with the holiday.

(Read about leaf identification here.)

We made these during the November Nature Tots, and they were so much fun. I absolutely loved the reasons that the toddlers gave of what their thankful for that trees give us. The best answer was “Brown.”

“The world needs more brown?” Mom asked.

The little girl nodded her head.

Perfect.

(Try our color match trek activity.)

Grab a few supplies and put together your own thankfulness tree. You’ll need:

Sheet of plain paper

Dried leaves

Elmer’s glue

Markers

Start by putting glue on the top half of the paper in a tree-canopy shape, like a circle or oval. Fill in the circular shape with more glue.

Take a handful of leaves and rub them between your hands over the glue so the crumbled little bits fall down onto the paper and stick in the glue.

Cover the glue with a good layer of leaf bits and pat down. Then tip the paper over the garbage or back over the pile of leaves so the extra bits come off. You can add more glue and do another layer or leave it as is, depending on your preference.

Use the markers to create a tree trunk underneath your leaf canopy. Around the tree trunk have the kids write — or have them tell you if they’re too young to write — what they are thankful for.

You can write down what in nature you’re thankful for, what trees give us that you’re thankful for or just what you’re thankful for in general this Thanksgiving.

Use these as a decoration for your holiday celebration.