One day when the kids got to school, they found something strange. There was a piece of cardboard taped to the wall. It looked like a sad, empty tree. “Teacher, what’s this for?” Petunia Ursula asked.
Teacher explained to them that it was a thankful tree. She had a whole bunch of leaves already cut out. “You can use these leaves to write what you are thankful for,” she said. “I am thankful for everyone in our class, so I wrote your names on these leaves.” She taped them to the tree. It looked a little less bare.
“I’m thankful for you, Teacher!” Michelle said. Teacher helped her write Teacher on a leaf and hang it up.
Luna didn’t know what to write on her leaf. She decided to ask her best friend Scrounge what she was writing.
“Stickers,” Scrounge said. “I am thanksful for stickers and for having a best friend to share them with.” She carefully peeled off a sticker and gave it to Luna. Luna was happy with the sticker, but she wished she had thought of being thankful for them.
Michelle was already making another leaf. “I’m thankful for money,” she said. “My mommy and daddy work hard to make money so I can have toys and food.”
“That’s a good thing to be thankful for,” Luna said.
Suzy was thankful for books, and for friends to read with.
“I’m thankful for the same thing every cowboy is thankful for,” Kenny said when Luna asked him. “My horse and my six-shooter. Except I don’t actually have a horse, and teacher took away my six-shooter and said I can have it back when my mommy comes to pick me up.”
Luna wasn’t so jealous of Kenny’s leaf. She didn’t have a horse either, and she didn’t have or want a gun.
Nelene was thankful for family. “I have a baby brother named Felix,” she told Luna. “He is mostly sort of okay.”
Nelene also was thankful for her cousins Ian and Sean. They always had fun when they played together.
Ruby was thankful for animals. Luna thought of her best friend Scrounge the cat. She wished she had thought of being thankful for animals.
Tex was thankful for clothes to wear. Isabel was thankful for policemen and firemen who keep us safe.
Bess was thankful for clean water to drink and healthy food to eat…
…but she was also thankful for candy and cupcakes!
“I see you don’t have a leaf yet either,” Luna said. “Are you having a hard time deciding, too?”
“No,” Drake said. “I am thankful that participation is not mandatory.” He took another long sip of milk.
T. Eliot was thankful for toy trains.
Petunia Ursula was thankful for blocks and all her other toys. Luna had toys to be thankful for too. She wished she had thought of it first.
Suddenly she knew exactly what to write on her leaf! She hung it up carefully. It was the last leaf on the tree.
“What did you pick?” Scrounge asked.
Luna pointed to her leaf and read it out loud. “I’m thankful that we all have so much to be thankful for,” she said.