Children can make a beautiful tree of handprint leaves that displays what the children are thankful for. This tree makes a great Thankgsiving decoration or a nice bulletin board.

Estimated Time: 30 minutes
Supplies Needed:
  • Construction paper (orange, red, yellow, brown, and other earth tones)
  • Crayons or markers
  • Scissors
  • Glue or a glue stick

Instructions

1.

Have children trace their hands on construction paper. Then cut out the tracings. These will be the leaves.

Tracing out paper handprints.
2.

Have the children write their names and what they’re thankful for on each of the handprints.

Writing on the handprint.
3.

Using brown construction paper, cut out a tree trunk and branches.

Cutting out the brown paper tree trunk.
4.

Glue or staple the tree tunk on a large piece of construction paper (or onto a bulletin board). Then glue or staple the handprint leaves to the tree.

For variations on this tree: instead of using handprints, use cut-out leaves, tissue paper baking cups, or torn-up scraps of paper.

The finished Thankful Tree craft.The finished Thankful Tree craft.