How often do you talk about gratitude with your kids?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t do it often enough.

Every November, it hits me. We need to talk about gratitude. I don’t focus enough on it the rest of the year. It’s time to get on it.

This Acorn Gratitude Banner was really simple to create. It got us all thinking about the things we are thankful for that we often take for granted. Plus, it turns into a cute decoration perfect for the Thanksgiving season.

And, since I know you’ll want to make even more holiday crafts, check out all of our Thanksgiving crafts for kids at this link.

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Make Your Acorns for Your Banner

We started with a pile of acorns. I used brown construction paper and drew some simple acorn shapes. I was able to get four acorns per sheet of paper.

Once I had my acorns drawn, I traced each one with a black Sharpie to help the details stand out.

If you aren’t confident in your drawing ability, there are plenty of examples online. Print out an acorn coloring sheet and use it as a template for your acorns. (This simple acorn coloring page would be perfect.)

We’ll be using these acorns to make our simple gratitude banner.

Create your gratitude banner

I gave my girls an equal number of acorns and asked them to write something they were thankful for on each each acorn.They thought for a while, consulted each other, and finally chose the things they wanted to write.

They were incredibly practical and listed such things as shelter, clothing, and beds. It makes me feel good to see that they realized these things that we so often take for granted and things to be grateful for.

Once they were done, I clipped out acorns to a piece of twine with a few simple clothes pin. Make sure to use something sturdy like twine or rope because the clothespin will weigh things down a bit.

I love the way our acorn gratitude banner turned out and I love that we can keep adding acorns to the banner as the month goes along.

This was a great way to start that conversation about gratitude that I had been hoping for.

More Thanksgiving Activities to Try

You can continue the gratitude conversation with these printable Gratitude Conversation Starters.

Make a cute Turkey Suncatcher Thanksgiving craft.

Decorate the table with Cardboard Tube Pilgrim Hats.

Check out the rest of the 2nd Grade Team for some more great acorn and squirrel themed ideas:

Acorn Arrays for Building Number Facts from Rainy Day Mum
Acorn Addition with Hundreds Chart from Life Over C’s
Squirrels Copywork from Sallie Borrink Learning
Fall Acorn Themed Vocabulary Activity from Sugar Aunts
Math for Fast Finishers: Squirrels and Acorns from Planet Smarty Pants

Recommended Resources for Thanksgiving Crafts

If you’re looking for easy crafts, I love the limited addition Thanksgiving Box from Green Kid Crafts. It comes with all the supplies and instructions you need to make some cute Thanksgiving Crafts. We’re big fans of Green Kid Crafts boxes. They’re fun, easy, and contain only natural and sustainable materials. And, if you’re not interested in their Thanksgiving Box, there are plenty of other art and STEM boxes (including a monthly subscription) to choose from.

Find the Thanksgiving Box here.

Check out all the other boxes here.

Are you looking for more activities?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share idea for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.