Giving Thanks

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, what better time than now to focus your students on being thankful for the blessings in their lives? Have your students choose one thing they're thankful for and teach them how to write it with "outline letters", which they can then decorate to reflect the theme of their illustration.

To make outline letters, lightly pencil in the word you want to write, leaving extra space between the letters. Then outline all the way around each letter. It's fun to create different styles of letters to give your drawing the "personality" you want, rounding corners, adding serifs, or changing your letters into shapes like hearts, flags or vines. Add some fun details to support your theme. You can trace your finished design with an Ultra-fine Sharpie. Finally, erase the original letters you started with (now in the middle of each outline letter) and any stray pencil lines still showing. Use colored pencils or markers to finish it off.

Here are a few examples from my 4th-6th grade students, giving thanks where thanks is due. There is nothing quite like the charm of kids' artwork!!