Thanksgiving Placemats Project!

[The Little Seed]

With Thanksgiving on the horizon parents have the perfect segue to talk to their children about gratitude. From their first introduction to spoken word children are taught to say “thank you”. In fact, we often times know how to express thanks to other languages. Gracias, merci, grazie, efharisto, danke, toda…it’s the universal salutation. But how often do we get time to explain the power of being grateful to our children - to recognize the force behind those simple words? A fun activity should help...try Thanksgiving placemats! This is a an enjoyable interactive project for children of all ages. You may even find yourself wanting to make one with them!

The purpose of this project is to create a collage that represents all the things your children are thankful for. You can use magazine photos, original drawings, quotes, real pictures, anything the imagination can whip up. First off, you will want enough space to work with; you have a few options to achieve this: 1 – cut the side of a cardboard box, 2 – tape the backside of two old notebooks next to one another, 3 - if you can come up with something better, go with that! There’s no right or wrong way to do this, just let your inner artist find a method. Once you’ve created a play space its time to let your imagination run wild, while keeping in mind you are showcasing all the things you are grateful for. Talk to your children through the process, and offer them ideas of things they should be grateful for. You'll learn what has given them joy in the past year, and they'll be surprised at the situations of fortune they overlooked.

Once the collage is complete, you can take it to your local office store to have it laminated.

When Thanksgiving day rolls around you’ll have super special customized placemats for your celebratory meal.

Writer/Contributor: Giselle Rodriguez