Continuing my series on Thankfulness and Thanksgiving, I wanted to give you some ideas of things you can do with your little ones – the toddlers in your house who are just beginning to get the concept of saying “thank you” when you give them something.
I started with a very basic activity for Gray – I asked him, “Who are your friends that you thank Jesus for?” Then, I wrote each of their names on a leaf – from this free printable (shown below) and then we hung it on the refrigerator. He was so proud of his paper! “Those Gray friends! I say thank you Jesus my friends!” Get your own copy of the printable here (it’s page 4 of the free document).
I also wanted him to be able to participate in some of the thankfulness art he had seen Sister doing, by letting him make some of his own Homemade Cards for his teacher at Mother’s Day Out, and for his nursery teacher on Sunday mornings. He also wanted to make pictures for his grandparents. I started him out by simply painting over leaves, and then once it turned into a full-on sensory activity (I knew it would – the boy loves to paint his hands!) then, I grabbed more sheets of paper and helped him make hand prints, which I turned into turkeys.
I have a couple of cute poems that I’ve pinned over on my Thanksgiving pin board, and I’ll select one of those to write inside the cards. Super simple, but he had a blast feeling the paint, being tickled by the paint brush, and feeling the silk leaves. It was a great sensory activity that was lots of fun for him!
Note – I love using acrylic paint for kid projects because it easily washes off of skin, and dries quickly on paper. BUT it stains clothing, so we usually do those projects either with a smock, or with him in his diaper.
Back to the original Thankfulness and Thanksgiving post.
Butterbees and Bumbleflies 
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