Thanksgiving is just around the corner so I came up with 5 fun activities for my daughter (3YO) and my student (6YO) to celebrate this holiday in Chinese! 

Books on Thanksgiving 感恩節的書

Since Thanksgiving isn’t a holiday celebrated in Mandarin speaking countries, finding children’s books on the holiday was a bit challenging.

After scouring the internet, here are eight I found!

Click on the image below for information on these books.

Thanksgiving Tree 感恩樹

For Thanksgiving, I really wanted an activity that can help our family be intentional in cultivating thankfulness.

In our social media day and age, it’s so easy to fall into the pit of comparison and discontentedness. On top of that, the pandemic this year has brought on extra stress for families.

In times like these, it’s even more important to take time to give thanks for what we have.

The simple act of recounting the good that’s taking place in our daily lives can alter our perspective to focus on what God is doing in our lives. Since we’re Christians, this is important for our family.

The first year I did this, I made the tree out of two paper grocery bags and gave it some texture with a brown marker. 

I then hot glued yarn over the Chinese characters 感恩樹 (gǎn’ēn shù) on the tree trunk to help the words stick out. (tip: use low heat glue gun to prevent burns)

Then I cut out leaves from construction paper to have on hand. I would ask my daughter and the girl I tutor “你想要為什麼獻上感謝？“ （ㄋㄧˇ ㄒㄧㄤˇ ㄧㄠˋ ㄨㄟˊ ㄕˊ ㄇㄜ˙ ㄒㄧㄢˋ ㄕㄤˋ ㄍㄢˇ ㄒㄧㄝˋ/ nǐ xiǎng yào wèi shé me xiàn shàng gǎn xiè/what would you like to give thanks for?).

I write their responses and tape it to the tree.

This is also a great way to create a Chinese print rich environment for Thanksgiving.

This year, I used cardboard and glitter glue for our tree.

It’s really sweet to see the simple things kids give thanks for. Great reminder for me to have a more childlike heart.

Thanksgiving Chinese Coloring Placemats

I came across some adorable Thanksgiving coloring placemats for kids at Target and thought it would be fun to create one in Chinese!

This is a great writing activity. You can either invite your kids to write what they’re thankful for or write it for them.

Writing Chinese characters, recording a child’s thoughts and ideas is a wonderful way to encourage writing.

Thanksgiving Turkey Color Activity 火雞顏色

I created a printable for the girls to color, cut and glue together to form a Turkey. They love coloring so this was a fun hands-on way for them to continue learning the Chinese characters for colors and use their fine motor skills.

Thankful for You 感謝有你

I wanted to give the girls an opportunity to give thanks to others as well as a way for them participate in being thankful of the people God has placed around us.

I created these cute gift tags to attach to cookies we baked. Then I invited them to give it to three people they wanted to thank. 

I love giving my daughter opportunities to experience the importance of blessing and encouraging others with our words and gifts. This is something we want to cultivate in our family. 

This printable is also included in my Thanksgiving pack.

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