Day 28

Materials:

• Clear shatterproof ornaments

• White cardstock printable paper

• Variety of colored ribbons

• Scissors, pen, markers, and crayons,

• Various small objects and items to fill the ornament,

• Photo of your child/student or nursing home resident

• Printer and circle template found on the next page.

Print out the circles (provided on page 2 of this Google document) onto an 8×10 piece of printable cardstock. The circles will fit perfectly in a small plastic shatterproof craft ornament. Provide one circle to each student and have them trim any excess to make the perfect circle. Next have each child fill out the question prompts on the circles, or better yet have students interview a student partner, or have students interview a nursing home residents from within your community, and fill out the important details of recording their name, age, favorite things, special friends, holiday wish list, and favorite gratitude memories of the year so far. If you have a student photo that fits, cut it to match the circle and glue it to the back so the photo shows from one side and the words on the other as an additional unique visual representation.

Guide your students as they fill the ornaments with objects they choose if doing it for themselves, or make it a very special memory making moment as they design a holiday ornament for their classmate or nursing home resident they interviewed. This is great fine motor skill practice for the littles, yet older students love the creative design elements to make it so visually unique to represent their art flair and their personal design.

Have students roll their circle to slide it into the ornament and then use tweezers to arrange the contents to their liking. Put the top back on the ornament and then tie a ribbon to it to hang it on your classroom gratitude tree. You could add a tag with the year or write on the ornament with a paint pen. This ornament will be a treasure each year as your students decorate their own trees in their homes, as they pull it out to decorate and are reminded of a special memory in their life.