a bowl of thanksgiving

08 Nov a bowl of thanksgiving

This was a fun craft project that the kids and I worked on together. On Halloween, we missed the crunch of fall leaves beneath our feet, and I decided we should make our own fall leaves. That evolved into our making a Thanksgiving centerpiece out of paper leaves, upon which we wrote some of the things we’re most thankful for.

We started by tracing leaf shapes on construction paper:

Then, I cut out all the leaves. (It’s much quicker if you stack several sheets and cut them at once.)

Once we had a nice pile of leaves, I had Bronwynn name some things that she is thankful for, and I wrote them down on the leaves. Her list included:

Princesses
Fishie (our new fish)
Miles
3, 4, 5 (as in, she’s thankful for the numbers 3, 4 and 5)
leaves

To round out the offerings, I added my own thanks for: Kris, for our good health, for B and Miles, for faith, for cool breezes and sunshine, friends near and far, and for plenty. Miles, in his own way, said he’s thankful for Dada and Mama….and for ceiling fans (he loves our ceiling fans!)

After writing everything down, I told the kids to grab all the leaves and crumple them up to make them look more like real fall leaves. Miles especially enjoyed this part.

Finally, I tossed all the leaves into a vase, tied a raffia ribbon around it and placed it on the sideboard in our dining room. This way, we can grab a few leaves and read them at dinnertime, or add a new leaf to the bowl as we think of new things to be thankful for.

It seems silly, but I really love looking at those leaves! It’s a great reminder to me that it is indeed fall, even if the thermometer is registering 90 degrees. 🙂