How to Make a Thanksgiving Grateful Tree for Kids

Learn how to make a Thanksgiving grateful tree for your kids this Thanksgiving so they can learn to be more grateful this holiday season.

The Grateful Tree

I have always loved the idea of a Thanksgiving grateful tree, so I’ve tried to make one every November. I believe in the principle of gratitude and would really like my kids to pick up the characteristic of being grateful. We are so blessed in life, especially being able to live here in America. I want my kids to always remember how fortunate they are, and how much they can help others.

I feel like making a grateful tree every year helps my kids be a little more grateful. We take a moment everyday to think of something we are truly grateful for.

There are two different ways you can do it. You can download the Thankful Tree, or you can draw your own tree and cut out your own leaves.

Here’s how we did it.

Update: I have since updated the Thankful Tree printable. The pictures seen below are not true to the download.

Check out these Gratitude Prompts

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How to Make a Thanksgiving Grateful Tree

Supplies:

Thankful Tree Template (optional)

Craft paper roll (optional)
Crayons or something to color with
Scissors
Pen, Sharpie, or Marker

If you are drawing your own tree:

Craft paper roll (I recommend buying a big roll and having it on hand, it comes in handy A LOT)
Pencil
Sharpie
Construction paper
Scissors
Pen

Instructions: 

If you are using the template, you can print it out and pick which tree you’d like to use. There are also different leaves you can use.

If you are drawing your tree, roll out your craft paper until it reaches your desired size and draw an outline of a tree with a pencil. If you need inspiration, look up tree images on Google. Trace over it with a sharpie. (I’m not sure why I included this picture because I realize that you can really see anything, haha. But this is my craft roll paper and I outlined a tree in pencil.)

Then I traced it with a Sharpie

I added a little “pazazz” to mine by putting The Grateful Tree on it.

Next, either color the leaves your printed out, or cut out the colored ones you printed, or draw some leaves on some construction paper.

Cut out your leaves. You can use these leaves to trace more leaves onto some construction paper for the future, or you can print out some more leaves from the template provided.

Each day write something you are grateful for on a leaf and glue it to your Thanksgiving grateful tree. I suggest everyone writes something they’re grateful for, but you can also decide on something collectively as a family.

Hang it up somewhere you can see it everyday and be reminded of all the things you are grateful for!

Things to do with Your Thanksgiving Grateful Tree

• You could start on November first and go until Thanksgiving or until the end of the month. Make it a whole grateful month. You could also go all the way to Christmas.
• At the end of the allotted time you could go over all the things you were grateful for that much and point out how blessed you are. You could also make a suggestion on what we can do now that we have all these great things in our life.
• You can start out with some leaves already on the tree so it’s not so bare.
• Try to help your kids think of something specific each day. If you go to broad, it can get harder to think of something later on.
• Make it a new Thanksgiving tradition.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Play these fun games at Thanksgiving Dinner:

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