I am a proud aunt to many nieces and nephews and while we have been staying at home, one of the things I am most grateful for is the time I’ve been able to spend with them. When Nationwide Children’s shared their “Growing Our Gratitude” activities, I was excited to share them with my family.
My nephew Zennon is 4 and my nice Freya is 2. They did not understand the word gratitude as first but I asked them what they are thankful for. Their answers made me laugh and smile. Freya just got her first “big girl” bed with a slide attached and she said she is thankful for her bed. My nephew immediately ran to grab a plush llama that dances and twerks and said he is thankful for his llama because it’s funny.
We continued to talk about what they are thankful for and Zennon said that he is thankful for his school and teachers. As a family we love to make arts and crafts and I immediately thought of something we could create as a family for Zennon and Freya to give to his pre-school teachers to show our gratitude.
We used the awesome gratitude cards provided by the On Our Sleeves™ movement to create a bouquet of gratitude for Zennon’s teachers. My mom, Sharon, a former elementary school teacher, and my sister, Tara, (Zennon and Freya’s Mom) are super crafty and together we had so much fun making bouquets! Here’s a step by step guide on how you can make one too!
Step 1
Step 2
Use wood skewers for the stems. Cover the skewer with green tape. The adults can use hot glue to attach the fake leaves to the stem.
Step 3
Place the same card back to back and use glue or double stick tape to make them stick together at the top. Place the stem in the bottom/middle of the cards and glue the stem to the back of the cards. Press the cards together so they are glued to the stem. (We used hot glue but you can use different types of glue as long as it has a strong adhesive.)
Step 4
Use brown craft paper to make a cone and line the cone with tissue paper to give it a pop of color. Place a ball of paper at the bottom of the cone to stabilize the flowers and then arrange the gratitude flowers in the cone.
Step 5
Give your bouquet of gratitude to someone to show you are grateful!
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