"I'm Thankful For You!" Kid-Made Ornament Gifts

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A few months ago my preschooler saw an 80-ish year old woman at church. She had just moved into our area and this was her first time meeting with us. My daughter looked at her, leaped to her feet, and cried out, "There's my grandma!"

To be clear, neither had ever seen each other before!

They have since become wonderful friends! As we read Bear Says Thanks, I could not help thinking of this wonderful woman, the holidays, and how my daughter decided they were friends. We decided to make "I'm Thankful for YOU! ornaments as a gift for her!



These simple ornaments let us talk about shapes (hearts, squares, and rectangles), friendship, and how we're thankful for our friends and family. They are simple enough that our youngest preschoolers could make them, and cute enough that our older kids enjoyed the project too.

To make your own "I'm Thankful for YOU!" ornaments, you will need:

cardboard, small fabric squares, ribbon, aluminum foil, glue, and a permanent marker




Preparation:

1- Cut a heart out of the cardboard. We used thick corrugated cardboard, and I love how they turned out! You could also glue two pieces of cardboard together.

2- Cut the ribbon down to about six inches and glue it onto the cardboard heart like a hanger. I used hot glue for this part, but any kind of glue would work.




3- Finally, cut out a small square of aluminum foil and write on it with a permanent marker "I'm Thankful for YOU!" We also added a piece with the kids' names.

Easy How To:

1- Let your kiddo glue the fabric squares onto the cardboard until it is covered!







2- As a final step, put some glue on the back of the aluminum foil and let your preschoolers add that square wherever they want!

3- Optionally, you can cover the entire thing with modge podge.





We took our ornaments to our new "grandma" as an early Thanksgiving present. Both the kids and our grandma were delighted! It was absolutely adorable to watch them give her their presents!

 It was such a treat to talk about how we are thankful for the people in our lives.

 One of our other favorite gratitude/Thanksgiving projects was a giant thankful tree, 
We were inspired to thankful ornament gifts to go with the book Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson. (Amazon Affiliate Link:)



Bear Says Thanks is one of the featured books in my preschool curriculum, HEEP!  I love it because Bear is a fantastic example of being grateful for his friends, thanking them appropriately, and sharing.

 It is also this week's book for the Virtual Book Club! You are invited to  join in all the fun at the Weekly Virtual Book Club group on Facebook, and you can learn more about the Virtual Book Club HERE!!



This week co-hosts for the Virtual Book Club are sharing activities to go with Bear Says Thanks! Check them out:

Alphabet Activities
Gratitude Acrostic Printable Booklets—Chickadee Lit
Gratitude Alphabet and Give Thanks Banner - To be a Kid Again

Name Activities
I am Thankful Activity-CraftCreateCalm
Magnetic Thankful Tree - The Educators' Spin On It

Number Activities

Sensory Activities
Happy Educating,
Carla


I may share at any of these parties!




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Comments

JDaniel4's Mom said…
This activity looks like so much fun! Kids love making ornaments!
November 7, 2016 at 9:59 AM
Rainy Day Mum said…
What a great way for all kids to give a gift of thanks to friends and family this time of year.
November 8, 2016 at 4:35 AM
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