Elderly Care Activities: Thankfulness Tree
As you go into the season of Thanksgiving on your elderly care journey with your aging loved ones, it is important to take the time to remember what this season is all about. Spending time acknowledging, celebrating, and showing appreciation for all of the things for which you are thankful not only improves your own mental and emotional health, it can be a beautiful and meaningful way to make a closer connection with your seniors, your partner, your children, and even your aging loved ones’ elderly health care services provider. Expressing thankfulness and listening to others as they express their own thankfulness is an incredible way to learn about each other and grow in your trust, closeness, and sense of bonding.
This craft is a simple yet effective way to encourage sharing thankfulness while also adding a personalized decoration to the home. Creating this tree gives each person that comes into the home the opportunity to have a moment of introspection and to openly share something that makes him thankful. This activity relieves stress, eases feelings of depression and hopelessness, and revives motivation and enthusiasm.
What You’ll Need
• An interesting-looking branch. Go outside with your parents and explore to find a branch that resembles a small tree. Look for branches that have several offshoots, and then further small offshoots from those to give you a natural alternative to an artificial tree
• Painters tape
• White spray paint
• Orange construction paper
• Red construction paper
• Brown construction paper
• Yellow construction paper
• Fine tipped acid-free permanent markers
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Cardboard
• Craft knife
• Hole punch
• Twine
• Printer
• Paper
• Tall, narrow glass vase that will hold the bottom of the branch but still allow the majority of it to stick up
• Mixed nuts in their shells
What to Do
• Wrap the bottom of the branch in painters tape and spray the remainder of the branch with the white spray paint. You will want to do this step outside to ensure proper ventilation since you are using spray paint. As an alternative, you can use acrylic craft paint
• Go online and find templates for autumn leaves
• Print out your favorite. You will only need one printed out
• Cut the shape out of the printer paper
• Use the pencil to trace the shape onto the piece of cardboard
• Use the craft knife to cut the shape out of the cardboard. This will be your template
• Use this template to cut leaf shapes out of the red, yellow, brown, and orange construction paper. Make several of each so that you get a good mix on the tree
• Use the hole punch to cut a hole toward the top of each leaf shape
• Cut small lengths of twine and feed them through the holes, tying knots to create loops so that you can hang them on the tree
• Fill the bottom of the vase with the nuts
• Insert the bottom of the branch so that it stands up like a tree
• Place the leaves along with the markers near the tree on an easily accessible table where your parents, their care provider, your children, your partner, any other visitors, and, of course, you, will be able to take a moment to think of something for which you are thankful and write it, along with your name, on one of the leaves and hang it on the tree
• Occasionally go by the tree and read the notes. You may even want to share them at Thanksgiving dinner.
If you or an aging loved one are considering elderly care in Collegeville, PA, contact the caring professionals at Reliant At Home Care today (610) 674-6860.
