“Be kind, Be thoughtful, Be genuine, But most of all, Be thankful”
– Unknown
The book I selected for this month was The Hugging Tree: A Story About Resilience by Jill Neimark. When looking for a book this month, this book really spoke to me.
Part of the descriptor states:
“The Hugging Tree tells the story of a little tree growing all alone on a cliff, by a vast and mighty sea. Reading this book with your child can be a way to teach resilience, self-confidence, and self-control and help you discuss challenges your child may be facing at home or school.”
I have always taught gratitude in November. Finding this book caused me to shift from my usual lessons and thought process. This story showed that one can persevere and overcome difficult times by reaching out for help. Asking for help is not a weakness, but a strength.
The skills worked on this month are many and include:
- Book knowledge (i.e., title, author, page turning, image walking)
- Use of low vision tools for reading the book
- Development of hand and eye coordination
- Development of finger and hand muscles
- Soliciting assistance appropriately
- Expressing feelings and ideas about gratitude
- Communication
- Positional concepts
- Self-advocacy
Activity 1 – Autumn thank you tree
This craft kit came from Temu. Be mindful that when ordering from Temu, the items take a couple of weeks to get to you. Oriental Trading Co. and Amazon had similar kits, but I liked the ones from Temu because they were more in line with the image in the book we read and the second activity I had planned. The pieces of this craft are also easily reproduced if one doesn’t have the time to wait. I typically use parent volunteers or seek out high school clubs that need service hours for help when hand preparing materials.
Materials I used for this craft:
This kit came with Velcro, but I wanted to work on gluing skills because several of my students have that as an IEP goal. I set aside the Velcro, and we practiced using liquid glue instead. I divided the pieces into containers to make it easier for my students to obtain the pieces that they wanted. Students were also able to decide whether or not they wanted to use the acorn.
One adaptation to this craft was to use the lightbox. While the pieces were not translucent, the shapes were easily seen, and as a result, the two students using this adaptation were able to successfully complete the craft with minimal assistance. Both students were also able to turn the lightbox on and adjust the light independently, which is a skill that they’ve been working on.
Activity 2 – Painting trees
There are many different blogs that I frequent, and I love going to them to get ideas. This painting tree craft idea was posted in August on the 24-hour Family site, so I had plenty of time to prepare materials for it. I adapted the activity that was posted to one I thought my students would enjoy after collaborating with my occupational therapists and an art teacher.
For this craft, I needed:
- A black-lined tree template
- Card stock
- Black, green, red, orange, and yellow t-shirt (puffy) paints
- Small (4-inch) disposable plates (I use these plates)
- Clothespins
- Cotton balls
- Picture frames
To prepare for the activity, I printed the tree template I chose on card stock. I used an off-white cardstock because fall tends to be less bright and sunny than summer or spring. The off-white color also allows the paint to “pop” off the page. We used the black paint to outline the tree as well as a few of the branches. I used the green paint to highlight the grass.
The students helped me squeeze paint (red, orange, yellow) onto the disposable plate and the clothespin we used to pick up the cotton ball that we would paint with. I have many students who do not like to get their hands dirty with paint, so using the cotton ball pinched with a clothespin allows them to participate without that barrier. I do other activities with them to work on increasing their tolerance for dirty fingers, so we do not attempt it during our “craft time” until they are more comfortable. They enjoyed the freedom to choose what colors to use and where to dab the “leaves.” Once dried, the finished project was placed in a picture frame to send home.
Tips
- T-shirt paint has a tendency to “stick” to any pages placed on top of it. To prevent this, I use parchment paper between the pages. Dollar stores have great parchment paper at a lower cost. I save those parchment pages to use again for future crafts.
- Instead of using paint, the student can use wadded up tissue paper and glue to make the leaves.
Activity 3 – Turkey Bingo
For a little bit of fun, I offered classroom teachers the opportunity to play Turkey Bingo using some of the printable cards I found here. I enlarged the cards for students to be able to see them better, and we also practiced scanning the cards from left to right and top to bottom with our optical devices.
Activity 4 – Scavenger hunt
Using the Turkey Bingo cards, we went on a scavenger hunt for the items listed on the cards. The kids were excited to explore trees and pumpkins around the school and to locate the trash cans and tables in the cafeteria.
All the crafts made this month were put in a manila envelope to be sent home as a gift to their families.
Extension activities
- One of my 1st grade classes was doing a tree activity in their classroom. The students used their fingerprints on different colored ink pads to create the ‘leaves’ on the trees. Then, they wrote a sentence under the tree. My student wrote, “I may be small but I can do big things.”
- Create bird seed ornaments to hang on trees on the campus grounds.
- Read other books about Thanksgiving
- Crafting Jeannie has a blog post filled with ideas for Thanksgiving crafts
- Darcy and Brian has a blog post where you can download free Thanksgiving Would You Rather cards that are easily adapted in braille or large print.
- Homeschool Preschool has a blog post Fingerprint Fall Tree craft that is easily adapted for any age. If your student doesn’t like getting their fingers dirty, try disposable gloves. Other items can be used like a pencil eraser…anything that has a handle can be used.
- Schooling Grace has a blog post about
Thanksgiving Letter Writing with easily adaptable templates.
