What's New!

Take and Makes for this project (ages 7 and up) are currently available at PPLD area libraries.

Watch the Giving Thanks video tutorial on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6oRb42V4l-E?list=PLMEg2Dd0dSFctLfDQxsL5SmuE8zkwQFmu

Supplies and Directions:

Supplies Included: Gratitude Journal (cover and pages—pages are already in the correct order); stickers for decorating; ribbon for securing pages and decoration

Supplies from Home: Crayons, markers, and/or pens; stapler or hole punch; scissors; glue stick or Elmer’s glue; old magazines or photos to cut for a collage. (A collage is a visual art form that uses photographs or paper/fabric images that are glued onto a backing.)
You can find all the instructions with explanatory photos in the video!

Step 1: Prepare Your Gratitude Journal

1. The pages of your Gratitude Journal should already be in order. Make sure the Rainbow Journal page is on top. (This page is a full spread, so it needs to be in the middle of your journal.) The cardstock Cover should be on the bottom of the stack (it will form a front and back cover after folding in half).
2. Carefully arrange your pages and cover making sure that all edges are even. Fold the cover and pages in half with a sharp crease using your thumb or the side of a pen.
3. Stapler Method: Secure pages to the Cover using a stapler. Staple as close to the center crease as you can (without stapling over the crease). Staple the top and bottom of your journal.
4. Hole Puncher Method: Hole punch on the crease at the top and the bottom. Use the ribbon included or any yarn, string, or twine you like to thread through the holes. Secure ribbon with a knot or bow on the cover (outside) of your journal.

Step 2: Be Creative (or Not) in Designing the Cover

1. Write your name on the line provided. Be creative: use a fancy pen or marker; use a fancy writing style.
2. Add stickers to decorate
3. OR draw or collage to decorate
4. OR just leave it as is. It’s up to you!

Step 3: Find a Comfortable Place, Choose a Page, and Begin Journaling
There are many ways to journal. You can free write on the topic of gratitude and thankfulness. Also, you can use various art forms. Try our acrostic poem page. Or create collage pages with copies of photos or old magazine images. Drawing is another way to express yourself in your journal. Most of all, make your Gratitude Journal meaningful to you.

Why a Gratitude Journal?
Studies show that practicing gratitude makes us happier. Focusing on people and things that you are thankful for can help you feel joyful.
When we express appreciation, it is good for friendships. When we tell people thank you and what you like about them, it helps us focus on the positive things about a person, and then we feel better about our friendships. Telling someone what you like about them or acknowledging a person’s kindness helps them to feel good, too.

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Nov. 12, 2021.

Supplies and Directions:

Step 1
Gather your supplies.
Provided in your bag: cardstock, clay, moss, dinosaur
From home: colored pencils/crayons/markers, scissors, tape
Step 2
Cut your cardstock strip so that you have a strip to make the ground of your dinosaur habitat and a strip to make a background (you might need a grownup’s help with this).
Step 3
Decorate both strips of cardstock with your markers. Maybe there are a bunch of leafy plants in the background or a big sun; maybe the ground has a river running through it.
Step 4
Secure your strips with tape so the background stands up.
Step 5
Now add the 3D things! Use the clay to mold rocks, mountains, dino eggs - whatever you like!
Add the moss to give your habitat some extra plant life. Finally, name your dino and put them in
their new home!

Take and Makes for this project will be available at area PPLD libraries beginning Friday, Nov. 5, 2021.

Supplies and Directions:

Materials we provide: Dry Erase Marker
Materials you provide: Glass or ceramic surface (Pyrex pans, plates, bathtubs, etc.), Water

1. Draw a picture on your smooth glass/ceramic surface with a dry erase marker.
2. Cover the drawing with some water (the warmer the better).
3. Watch while your drawing lifts off the surface and floats around on the water!
4. You can push the drawing around to your heart’s content.
5. After you have watched your drawings come to life in the water, stick your hand into the swirling color and it will stick to your skin like a tattoo!

TIPS:

• You will be more successful if you draw a solid picture (e.g. a solid shape).
• When the drawing lifts off the surface, it will not maintain its shape.
• The skin tattoo will wash off very easily.

This works because dry erase markers are mostly made up of alcohol and a release agent made of silicon oils. When you write on the plate or Pyrex dish, the alcohol evaporates and just leaves behind the ink and release agent. We all know that oil and water don’t mix, so the ink with the oils in the release agent just float to the top!