Thankful Book

Thanksgiving is next week. Where did the year go? It seems like we just finished the holidays, and now here we are getting ready to celebrate again!

Jonah is old enough this year to understand a lot more than ever before, and I am enjoying teaching him about different aspects of the holidays. One of Jonah's favorite TV shows is Blue's Clues. I often let him watch it while I'm preparing dinner. We have Netflix on Demand, and so I can pick which episode to let him watch. We've been watching the "thankful" episode. Steve created a "Thankful Book" and goes around to all of the characters, asking what they are thankful for. Then he reads the book at the fall feast.

I decided that this was a great way to teach Jonah about being thankful! I have been talking to him a lot about what makes us thankful. I started by telling him that when we are thankful for something, we mean it makes us happy. Then I talked to him about all of the things that make me happy. I used the ASL signs for "happy" and "thankful." during our conversation, since he seems to absorb more when we use signs, even though he is becoming more verbal.

Then we talked about things that make Jonah happy. Basketball, football, Gigi and Papaw(my mom and dad,) Grandma and Grandpa (Daryl's mom and dad,) his gorilla Hank, books, the leaves outside. I wondered when I was talking to him if he was getting anything out of it, but he seemed engaged, and later in the day he picked up his basketball and said "Thank you! Basketball!" and signed "thankful" and "happy" so I think he understood at least the concept of what I was talking about.


Then we started our book. The very first thing we needed to do was make the cover. I cut a turkey shape from a piece of brown 12x12 scrapbooking paper. Then I let Jonah paint it with paints that he chose.

While we waited for the paint to dry, I cut feather shapes from construction paper. When the paint was dry, Jonah used the squeeze bottle glue to sick the feathers to the turkey.

 (the second picture is sideways and refuses to be turned!)

Then I cut the head out of gray paper, and finished adding the details such as eyes and a beak etc. We will take pictures of things that make us thankful and print out the pages using our computer. I will use clear contact paper to laminate the pages, and then bind them together with a binder ring. When it is done, I will share the finished product here!