Decorate a thankful or gratitude tree with this fun Thanksgiving craft and activity, perfect for kids and adults alike, and ideal for the holiday season.
If you’re searching for a gratitude activity to do with your kids or a new family tradition for the holiday season, these thankful tree printables are an excellent option. A gratitude tree helps foster well-being and stronger bonds at home, in the classroom, or at work. Engaging in simple gratitude crafts and activities, like this printable thankful tree craft, makes it easy to boost feelings of joy and thankfulness during the Thanksgiving season. Give thanks in a new way this holiday season with a printable thankful or gratitude tree.
Even toddlers and preschoolers can decorate a thankful tree to express their gratitude and creativity using these easy printable gratitude crafts. Easy Thanksgiving crafts, such as these printable gratitude and thankful tree crafts, encourage children and adults of all ages to express their appreciation, especially in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, following the Fall Autumnal Equinox. However, both sets of tree craft printables have been updated with green leaves, in addition to the fall leaves in vibrant autumn colors, making it possible to decorate one of these trees to make gratitude crafts at any time of year. For more information about the thankful tree tradition and several other beautiful ways to make one, please visit Thankful Tree Tutorial and Ideas.
Choose Between Two Printable Options: A Thankful or a Gratitude Tree:
Several printable options are available in the Rhythms of Play Learning Center to complete this thankful activity for kids and adults. First published on November 2, 2021, this post is regularly updated to enhance its content and ensure it remains current. As you can see in the photos above and below, I have updated this printable gratitude activity to include not one but two printable options.
Choose between a bare tree printable with “Thankful” or “Grateful” written at the base of the tree to make a thankful tree or a gratitude tree. Each of these printable options is perfect for the Thanksgiving holiday season and can also be used throughout the year. Or you can purchase both of these crafts and more in this printable bundle of gratitude activities. No matter which you choose, a gratitude tree or a thankful tree, each set of printables consists of two other excellent options:
As you can see in the photos below, each printable set features a full-color bare tree and colorful paper leaves, as well as bare tree and blank leaf outlines, which can be used as coloring pages. Each set of printables also includes green leaves for crafting a gratitude tree in spring and summer, as well as beautiful autumn-colored leaves that are yellow, orange, and red to make a fall tree. Please use the printable tree crafts you like best! You might also enjoy these Thanksgiving gratitude crafts and activities.
What is the purpose of a Thankful or Gratitude Tree?
The primary purpose of a thankful or gratitude tree is to encourage people to express gratitude and cultivate a more mindful awareness of their emotions and feelings. These printable tree templates provide a gratitude craft activity that serves as a powerful visual and interactive tool for both children and adults. Practicing thankfulness and gratitude can reduce stress, increase happiness, and improve emotional well-being. Best of all, thankful and gratitude trees can be utilized in various settings, including schools, workplaces, and therapeutic environments.
Gratitude activities like this foster a culture of mindfulness and thankfulness, leading to happier families, classrooms, and offices. Invite your dinner guests to make one of these beautiful tree crafts at the Thanksgiving table, or incorporate them into your fall equinox celebrations. You might also enjoy these printable Thankful Turkey Placemats. They can also help guests cultivate grateful feelings and express their creativity while waiting for Thanksgiving dinner.
Benefits of Using a Printable Gratitude or Thankful Tree:
This printable gratitude tree is a fun and engaging activity that helps children recognize and articulate what they are grateful for. This can enhance their emotional intelligence and promote a positive mindset. Thanksgiving trees, such as this interactive printable, can also serve as an educational tool to develop vocabulary and writing skills as preschoolers, kindergartners, and young elementary-aged children learn to express their thoughts and ideas.
Writing down and acknowledging the good in their lives on the pre-cut leaf shapes can reduce stress and improve the mental health of children and adults. Feel free to print a sheet of extra leaves to increase feelings of gratitude, along with the number of leaves on each tree branch. Whether in a classroom, workplace, or family setting, sharing these creative tokens of appreciation can foster a sense of community and promote open communication and empathy among siblings, relatives, or classmates.
Moreover, the thankful tree printable offers a fun seasonal craft with gorgeous fall colors that make lovely DIY autumn decor. As of this update, it also features a printable page of green leaves, making it suitable for crafting in the spring or summer. Hang your completed gratitude tree art in a frame on the wall or pin it to a bulletin board to create a physical reminder of everyone’s collective gratitude and blessings at any time of year. You may also enjoy this printable “I Am Grateful for” gratitude activity, suitable for both kids and adults. It offers an alternative thankful activity you can try. Click the link to learn more.
How To Use A Printable Thankful or Gratitude Tree:
Each of these printable trees with leaves offers a simple yet meaningful activity that promotes reflection and appreciation. Decorating one is an ideal gratitude activity for Thanksgiving, family gatherings, classrooms, or personal mindfulness practices. To get started, you’ll need either the printable “Thankful Tree” or “Gratitude Tree” (each option is included in the craft supplies below and contains a bare tree with branches and printable gratitude leaves) and a few other simple materials. First, gather your preferred supplies from the recommended options in the next section. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions for the thankful tree craft that follows the list of supplies.
Gratitude Tree Craft Supplies:
- Choose one of the following printable tree options for this gratitude activity:
- Printable Thankful Tree with Leaves in spring, summer, or fall colors.
- Printable Gratitude Tree with Leaves in spring, summer, or autumn colors.
- As shown in the photos, both sets of tree printables offer two options: one featuring a bare tree and printable leaves that can be printed in full color, and another tree and leaf set that can be used as coloring pages. In other words, you can choose to use a tree and leaves printed in full color, or color the tree and leaves yourself. Use the printable pages you like best!
- Cardstock
- Scissors
- Choose one of the following options for coloring the tree and leaves (if desired) and writing what you are most thankful for onto the back or front of the gratitude leaves:
- Permanent marker
- Dual-tipped (brush and fine) blendable art markers
- Paint pens
- colored pencils
- crayons
- Watercolor paints
- Choose one of the following options to attach the thankful leaves to the tree:
- Glue pen,
- Glue dots,
- Double-sided glue tape,
- A glue stick
- Transparent tape
- Or use push pins if you’re hanging the gratitude tree on a bulletin board.
Printable Gratitude and Thankful Tree Craft Instructions:
Use the easy steps below to complete this Thanksgiving gratitude craft. Learn more about this modern Thanksgiving Tradition HERE–> Thankful Tree Tradition.
1. Get access to either the Thankful Tree or the Gratitude Tree printable for Thanksgiving:
- Get both thankful tree printables with gratitude leaves HERE–> Printable Thankful Tree.
- You will notice that one of the bare tree printables included in each set is full color, while the other is a coloring page.
- Please use the gratitude printables you like best!
2. Print the Bare tree and gratitude leaves of your choice:
- Print the pages of the gratitude or thankful tree and leaves you like best onto cardstock for the best results.
- Either print one gratitude or thankful tree for the whole family, classroom, or office to decorate as a group.
- Or print a bare tree and leaves for each person so that they can create their own thankful tree craft.
3. (Optional) Color the tree and leaves:
- If you are using the coloring pages and want to color the bare tree and leaves, invite children and adults to color (or paint) the printable tree with one of the options listed below before proceeding to the next step.
- Permanent markers
- Dual-tipped (brush and fine) blendable art markers
- Paint pens
- colored pencils
- crayons
- Watercolor paints
- You also have the option of coloring each of the gratitude leaves now, with or without thankful words of appreciation written on them, or you can color (or doodle) on each leaf and write a word or phrase when you add it to the tree.
- Read Step 6 below for more information about writing what you are grateful for on each leaf.
4. Cut out the leaves for the Gratitude or thankful tree craft:
- Use scissors or a precision cutting mat with a cutting tool to cut out each gratitude leaf.
- Invite the kids to do this step of the gratitude craft activity for cutting practice, or use a specialized cutting tool.
- If you choose this option, please ensure children know how to use cutting tools safely and are supervised.
- Encourage younger children to use scissors, and have older children try using a cutting mat and cutting tool to develop hand dexterity.
- (Optional) Laminate the leaves to reuse them year after year.
- Wet-erase markers are an excellent writing tool for laminated leaves because they won’t get wiped off by accident and can be easily removed with a bit of water.
5. (Optional) Place the Thankful or Gratutide Tree in a central location:
- If you plan to add a new leaf to the tree every day instead of putting it together in one sitting, arrange everything in a central spot, such as on a wall, bulletin board, fridge, art storage picture frame, or tabletop.
- Place markers, pens, colored pencils, or crayons in a bin or basket, and the leaves in another container to make everything easy to access to complete the activity.
- This will make it easy to invite participants, such as family, friends, co-workers, or students, to write what they feel most grateful for onto one colorful leaf each day to complete this printable gratitude craft for the Fall Autumnal Equinox or Thanksgiving.
6. Invite Gratitude: Write what you are thankful for on each printable leaf:
- Ask participants to write down one thing they are thankful for on each leaf.
- This can occur daily for several days, weeks, or even a month.
- Alternatively, you can write on them all at once in a single sitting, whether making the gratitude tree by yourself or as a group activity with your family, students, or co-workers.
- The Thanksgiving tree shown in the photographs has words of gratitude written on the leaves with paint pens, but markers or colored pencils work just as well.
- Suggestions can include ideas such as:
- Name a person you are grateful for.
- Something that brings you joy.
- Write a word to represent a moment that made you smile.
- Use gratitude prompts for even more ideas.
- For added creativity, try using leaves of different colors to represent various themes.
- For example, red for people, orange for experiences, and yellow for things.
- If you want the words to be visible, write what you are thankful for on the colored side of the autumn leaf cutouts, as shown in the photograph below.
- Alternatively, if you would prefer your words of thanks to remain private and known only by you, write what you feel thankful about on the back of each colorful fall leaf so that they will not be visible once you glue a bunch of leaves onto the thankful tree.
- A few more excellent tips for writing thankful thoughts on gratitude leaves are provided below, following these step-by-step instructions.
6. Attach the gratitude leaves to the Thanksgiving Tree craft:
- After writing, attach the leaves to the tree using glue, tape, or pins to secure the printable gratitude leaf to the Thanksgiving tree.
- Place a drop of glue or a piece of tape on the base of each leaf.
- Then, attach the gratitude leaf to the upper trunk or upon a tree branch or limb.
- Alternatively, pin each leaf to the tree if it is on a bulletin board.
- Either glue on one of the pre-cut leaves per day in October if you live in Canada, or in November if you live in the US, to count down to the Thanksgiving holiday.
- Alternatively, use the printable page of green leaves included in both sets at other times of the year.
- Or glue bunches of leaves in one sitting to finish your gratitude tree craft.
- You can start from the bottom and work up, or let them branch out naturally.
- Attach a few around the base of the tree to look like leaves that have fallen from the tree.
- Learn more about gratitude trees and including them in your Thanksgiving traditions HERE–>Thankful Tree Tradition.
7. Watch your gratitude grow:
- As each leaf is added, whether in one sitting or over a period of days or weeks, the tree will grow with your grateful thoughts.
- This growth can continue as a singular individual or group activity or can build over a designated period of time.
8. Reflect on Your Thankfulness:
- Once the tree is complete, take a moment to read some of the leaves and allow feelings of gratitude to fill your heart.
- Please share your grateful thoughts with your family or friends, or use the opportunity to create a gratitude journal entry for what you have discovered as a result of making a thankful tree.
- Reading the leaves to share gratitude with loved ones is a great activity to do while waiting for dinner, or at the table with family and friends for Thanksgiving. This gratitude activity is also great for dinner conversations at other times of year.
9. (optional) Hang or display the gratitude or thankful tree craft for Thanksgiving or any time of year:
- If you don’t already have the thankful tree craft hanging somewhere to add a leaf to it each day, or are putting it together in one sitting, now is a good time to hang or display this Thanksgiving craft somewhere to remind you of what you are most grateful for, as it will contain many of the blessings in your life.
- Please display your finished gratitude tree in a nice frame, pin it to the bulletin board, tape it to a door, hang it on the refrigerator, or attach it to a magnetic wall calendar with fingerprint art magnets.
- You can also use these cute homemade thumbprint heart magnets to hang your completed gratitude tree crafts on the fridge, a magnetic whiteboard, or anything else magnetic.
Tips for Writing on Thankful or Gratitude Leaves:
Writing words and short phrases on the leaves of a gratitude tree is a simple way to express your heartfelt appreciation for specific people, experiences, and things in your life. Use these printable gratitude prompts to help you come up with things to write down on each leaf. When we are thankful for what we have and take a moment to express our gratitude for the simple things in life, especially those that people often overlook or take for granted, it increases feelings of happiness and contributes to our overall well-being.
The key to grateful thinking is to go beyond generic statements and include personal details that make the message more meaningful and impactful. Unfortunately, the printable thankful leaves are often too small for this gratitude activity. However, there is a simple solution. I recommend creating a separate gratitude journal entry for each thankful leaf. In other words, write a gratitude entry, then select a short keyword or phrase to write on the leaf that reflects that entry. You can also write the date on the leaf to make it easier to look back on what you wrote if desired.
Here are a few other things to consider when you write on the printable leaves for your Gratitude or thankful tree:
- Use a gratitude prompt: If you are helping others write on leaves for a gratitude tree, provide a prompt or ask a question to inspire more detailed responses, such as “What made you smile today?”
- Write down people and events more than things: Focusing on people and events fosters a more profound sense of thankfulness and gratitude. Meaningful moments and the people in our lives will always bring us more joy than material things, so prioritize people and experiences over possessions.
- Feel it in your heart: Take a moment to feel gratitude in your heart instead of quickly writing a word without any emotion.
- Consider your life without it: Take a moment to reflect on the absence of that person, place, or object to deepen your appreciation for it and enhance feelings of gratitude.
- Make it short and sweet: Come up with a single word or a short phrase to represent whatever it is that you are grateful for, and keep it simple. You can even doodle your answer onto a leaf or use this gratitude journal page.
Gratitude or Thankful Tree Craft for Thanksgiving
If you’re looking for a Thanksgiving craft to do with your kids or a new family tradition for the holiday season, a printable gratitude or thankful tree is a fantastic option. Thankful crafts like this gratitude tree make it easy to celebrate the true meaning of Thanksgiving.
Use this printable thankful craft to increase feelings of joy and gratitude in your home, classroom, or workplace this autumn. Learn more about the modern thankful tree tradition in this informative guide: Best Thankful Tree Ideas.
Gratitude activities, such as this printable craft, are enjoyable for kids and adults of all ages. Even toddlers and preschoolers can make their own thankful tree using this easy printable activity! You might also enjoy this list of Thanksgiving gratitude activities and Thanksgiving traditions. Happy Thanksgiving!
Learn more about Nell Regan Kartychok, author, photographer, and creator of this original gratitude craft HERE, and Rhythms of Play HERE!
More Thanksgiving Crafts and Ideas:
- Turkey Leaf Lantern Craft
- 20 Thanksgiving Traditions
- Thankful Turkey Printable Placemats To Color
- Best Thankful Trees for Thanksgiving
- Thankful Turkey Printable Coloring Page
- DIY Gratitude Mobile
- Thanksgiving Gratitude Crafts and Activities
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