Thankful Pies

The kids and I have been talking about what it means to be thankful for things.  The word "thankful" has proven to be a bit confusing for them.  We read a book in group time about being happy, and talked about what makes us each happy.  They can understand that concept much better!

Meanwhile, I cut a pie shape out of some paper plates to prepare for our thankful pies.

We took turns in group time mentioning one thing at a time that makes us happy.  I wrote each child's responses down on their own paper plates.  When doing this, it's important to write down exactly what the kids say, even if it doesn't make sense to me.  In the past, when I thought a child was making up something odd, it turned out that what she was talking about was something specific to her family and an imaginary friend they all have.  So if this guy eats fish with the gold in it, I'm sure his parents must know what he meant by that. :)

Off to the table we went to color our paper plate orange, just like pumpkin pie.   Not one of them mentioned that the plate looks like PacMan. (I'm feeling old.)

While they colored, I mixed a little bit of Elmer's glue with some water.

We got out the pumkin pie spice and smelled it.  I thought it might be fun to add a smell to our thankful pies.

When the kids finished coloring, I placed their pie on top of the plate with their responses about what makes them happy and brass fastened them together.  This created a thankful pie wheel.

To add a smell, I just took a paintbrush with the glue/water mixture and ran it around the edge of the orange color and the kids sprinkled pumpkin pie spice onto it.  It covered quite nicely!  The kids enjoyed that their pies smelled good.  I enjoyed that they could all tell me things that make them happy. 

It is freezing this morning and the fire inside is blazing.  All of the cats are watching me and looking at me as though I can warm things up for them so their outside experience will be more pleasing.  So funny!

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥