Thankful Banner

I mentioned I was working in my son's first grade class yesterday.  His teacher was in a meeting while I was there, so I took that opportunity to ask each of the kids why they were thankful for her.  I wrote down each of their responses on a card.  I found this "I am thankful" printable at Family Fun that worked perfectly.

I took each of these cards and stitched them to a square of felt.  I laid them all out in a design that would work as a banner and used hot glue to attach twine to the back to keep them all together (thanks to my husband for that quick and easy idea).  I added a dowel at the top with twine so she could hang it.

She loved it, especially the picture of the class in the center of the banner.

Curious to know why first graders are thankful for their teacher?  When you have a teacher as kind and caring as she is, you get quite an array of responses.  Here are a few.  :)

* She never gives up on us.
* She's very nice and very happy.
* She doesn't get grumpy.
* She lets us play football outside.
* She reads to us.
* She's nice and doesn't scream.
* She teaches us math.
* She thanks you for helping out.
* She helps us when we need help.
* She helps me sound out words.

Thankful Handprint Turkeys

I was lucky enough to spend some time in my son's first grade class yesterday to do a fun Thanksgiving craft with them.  For this activity you need a sturdy paper plate, ink pad/paint, markers, paper for feathers and decorative squares, and glue.

Each child used an ink pad to stamp their handprint on the plate.  Next, they wrote something they were thankful for on each of the four feathers.  They cut the feathers out and glued them onto the fingers on their handprint.  They used markers to add details to their handprint turkeys (eyes, beak, wattle, feet).  And last, they glued the small squares of paper around the edge of their plate as a decoration. 

The kids worked really hard on these and they all turned out really well.  Here is a picture of my son's thankful handprint turkey (see the extra details on his turkey - don't ask, when you have your own 6 year old son, you'll understand).

Free Thanksgiving Printables

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, I've been wanting to do all kinds of fun crafts.  But, with two sick kids at home this week, no one was really in the mood.  Although we did manage to fit in a few fun printables to keep us busy.  While the kids are on the mend, and I have a moment, I wanted to share with you some of the free Thanksgiving printables out there.

• You can find a bunch of free printables at Family Fun.
• There is a list of 10 free printables over at Skip to My Lou.
• Another list of 12 free printables over at Tip Junkie.
• Educational printables at Education.com.
• Fun printables at Kaboose.
• More educational printables at The Education Center.
• Thanksgiving printables at DLTK.
• Some fun printables from Parents.
• Cute turkey masks at Animal Jr.
• Free Thanksgiving printables from Nick Jr.
• Printables from Crayola.
• A great preschool pack of printables from 1+1+1=1.
• A wonderful array of printables at Living Locurto.

There are so many printables out there!  Looking for more?  Just go to Google and type in "Thanksgiving Printables."  Have fun!