Fall Crafts for Families & Kids for Having Fun & Teaching Gratitude

Every season is a great season to learn gratitude, but fall presents a special opportunity for families to teach their children gratitude while leading up to our beloved Thanksgiving holiday. Here are two fun craft ideas for kids to do during the fall season: Building a Gratitude Wreath and Creating a Gratitude Bucket. You can obviously adjust the crafts to whatever best suits you and your family.

Fall Craft for Kids: Building a Gratitude Wreath

Craft Materials: (For the Wreath) Fun Foam, or Twig Wreath, or Poster Board; (For the Leaves) Cardstock, Markers, Scissors, Tape

Directions: In building a gratitude wreath, you'll want to start the craft by creating a wreath base. Cutting a wreath shape out of fun foam or poster board are both easy and inexpensive options. But, if you have something like a wicker or twig wreath just sitting around the house, that could be great to use instead.

As a family, take turns cutting out leaf shapes out of pieces of cardstock or construction paper, cutting between six and twelve leaves to a page. Cut enough leaves out so that everyone in the family will have one leaf per day until Thanksgiving (or a cut off date of your choice.) Everyday at a specified time, maybe before dinner, or maybe before bedtime, go around the family and have each member tell one thing they are grateful for. Have each member write down his or her thought and attach it to your gratitude wreath. Depending on the material you chose for your wreath, attaching the leaves can be done by tape, glue, straight pins, or anything else that will work. By the end of the craft's duration, everyone will be able to see how truly blessed your family is.

As a variation, you may want each member of the family to have his or her own wreath to build gratitude on. You can also impose additional rules such as no repeating ideas already used. Determine what's best for your specific circumstances and go with that. There's no wrong way to build a gratitude wreath if the children are having fun and learning to be more thankful.

Fall Crafts for Kids: Assembling a Gratitude Bucket

Craft Materials: (For the Container): Bucket, or Pot, or Jug; (For Decorating) Paint, or Markers, or Ribbons; (For the Fillings): Beads or Corn Kernels

Directions: Similar to building a gratitude wreath, assembling a gratitude bucket will equally provide your family with a fun way to be creative, spend time together, and learn gratitude. You can give everyone his or her own container to decorate, or you can have a shared family holder for this craft. Depending on what kind of jar or pot you're using, you may want to decorate it differently. But you can use paints, markers, ribbons, cutouts, or anything else you want to decorate the container(s).

Everyday until Thanksgiving (or another cut off date you like better), have each family member say one thing they are grateful for and add a bead, or seed or kernel, to the pot. By the time your end date comes, your container(s) will be filled with symbols of how much your family has to be thankful for. This can be a fun way to daily talk about how many blessings and privileges you all really have.