Leaves of Gratitude Fall Thanksgiving Bulletin Board Window Display

While Canada and the United States share many holidays – including Christmas and Labour Day – Canadian and American Thanksgivings are held almost two months apart. Ours was held on October 14th and in the U.S, it's on November 28th. Canada’s celebration has often been credited to it getting colder the further north you go – and therefore having an earlier harvest. The day is still all about gratitude and giving thanks in both countries (and a turkey dinner and pumpkin pie!)

 

I saw these table place cards at Dollarama and was inspired to create a window display involving all students and staff from our school. The office staff distributed them to all the homeroom teachers and they had students write on them something they were grateful for. Then, a colleague and I hung them on windows in a naturalistic swirling motion using scotch tape. 

It added a nice autumnal touch to our hallway and received many compliments!

 

Feathers of Appreciation

A lovely Thanksgiving project that I found from the wonderful 

art education website Deep Space Sparkle. 

Grade 6 students led Grade 4 and 5 students in drawing and colouring a feather. Then, they added a word of something in their life they are grateful for. This aligns with our school's emphasis on appreciation. To read about the benefits of teaching children gratitude, this is a great article:

10 Science-Backed Benefits of Practicing Gratitude With Kids

They sketched out a large feather on long strips of construction paper.

                                 

Then used oil pastes to colour and add patterns.

Finally cut out and then their word was glued on top. 

Use white glue as glue sticks didn't stick well to the oil pastel. 

    

    

    

    

    

They were all hung on a window for the parents to see :)

Turkey Drawing

Here's a quick little Thanksgiving lesson perfect for K-2. I had students follow me doing a simple turkey drawing on orange construction paper.They outlined their drawings with a black marker, then colored them in using construction paper crayons. I LOVE these crayons and so do my students "They're so smooooth", one Gr.1 student told me :)

OK- this one might look a bit peacock-y....

Coffee Filter Turkey Craft

This is a cute Fall and/or Thanksgiving craft I did with a Grade 2 class.

Start off with a coffee filter: basket-style.

Fold it in half, then half again. Cut a scalloped edge to respresent the feathers.

Students roughly colour in the filter with waterbased markers. Encourage the students to really colour in the filter well, in order to get a bright finished product. Then I just walked around and sprayed each one a couple of times with a water mister. The colours will bleed and blend together.

Let dry.

Draw and cut out a simple turkey body shape out of brown paper or the inside of a cereal box.

There are two ways to create the legs: spring type, which are more difficult, and a simpler accordion fold. Decide which works best for your students- I did the accordion fold with Grade 2 students.

For the spring-y legs, glue two long strips of paper together to form a "L" shape.

Then alternate folding each strip over the other until you reach the end. Glue the end together.

It's helpful to watch this video below to see how to make these 'paper spring' legs:

You can also make accordion fold legs. Glue these onto the turkey body (the spring legs are more tricky to glue on- I recommend a glue gun for them, or use a paper-clip to help attach them to the body with white glue while they dry.) Cut out two feet from orange paper and glue them to the ends of the legs. 

Glue on a paper beak, eye and red dangly thingy (aka: wattle).

Finally, glue the body onto the coffee filter. Ta da!

The students' classroom teacher made this lovely display outside her classroom of their work.