thankful trees

In honor of Thanksgiving this week, the first graders made "thankful trees." As a class, we made a list of the different things we were thankful for this year. Then, using different leaf templates, they cut out leaves and wrote their own thankful list on the leaves. Next they practiced symmetry by folding brown paper in half, drawing half a tree shape on the line of symmetry, and cutting it out to produce a place to put their thankful leaves. We talked about how trees lose their leaves every year but grow new ones the following spring. Similarly, what they are thankful for next year will differ from this year.