Make an Easy Morse Code Bracelet to Teach Thankfulness

Kid activity ideas come from the strangest places. Does your pediatrician give you the Ages and Stages Questionnaires? On the 2 year old one it asks if they can string small objects onto a string. At the time, I had never tried this with my daughter. So, the morning of her appointment we tried it. She not only could do it, but she had a great time doing it. Ever since then, we have had a small box with yarn and beads in it for her to play with (when supervised). Because she loves stringing beads, I decided to make a bead bracelet with her. For Thanksgiving, I thought it would be fun to make a thankfulness Morse code bracelet. 

My daughter is only 2 1/2 so she can’t read words yet. This means that Morse code is beyond her for now. But since we have talked about it, she knows her bracelet represents what she is thankful for. An older kid would obviously be able to grasp this better. I thought that this was a fun way to make a physical reminder of something to think about that not everyone can read. We made what we were thankful for, but here are some other fun ideas:

• Your name
• A goal
• A Bible verse
• Someone your praying for

How to Make a Thankfulness Morse Code Bracelet

Materials:

• Bracelet cord
• Colored beads
• Tape

Prep:

First, decide what you are thankful for that you want to be reminded of. Unless you or your child has a really big wrist, pick a fairly small word. My daughter picked “swing” and I picked “family”. Then look up the Morse code for each letter and write it down somewhere. Here is a great chart to help translate. Then decide which color bead you want to be your dash and which you want to be your dot. To make it easier to keep track of, I translated my Morse code from earlier into the colors I was using.

Then, you need to prep your bracelet cord. The key to this step is to make it way longer than you think you need to. I ended up making mine three times, because it kept being too short after being knotted. After I cut my string, I folded it in half and double knotted the top. This left a small loop. Then I wrapped tape around the bottom to make it easier to string beads on.

Creating:

Now we got started stringing on beads. I told my daughter what color to put on and she strung it on. Every time she finished a letter, I tied two knots at the end. I made mine at the same time. Also, just a reminder that beads can be dangerous for little ones. If you are doing this with a young child watch them carefully while you make it. I also take my daughter’s finished bracelet off for naps and bedtime just to be safe.

Once we both finished our last letter and set of knots, I took the tape off the end. Somehow they were the perfect length (3rd times the charm), but if they hadn’t been I would have trimmed the remaining cord.

Then I tied our bracelets on. I took the two strings at the end and double knotted them around the loop at the top.

Of course while I did these final steps, my daughter made a bracelet for Lumpy out of one of the strings that was too short. I tied it on as well. I guess Lumpy is thankful for “W”. If you aren’t familiar with my daughter’s elephant lovey named Lumpy check out these sleep sack, backpack, paper doll, and car bed crafts.

My daughter loves her new bracelet. While she isn’t old enough to read it, she knows that it says “swing”. Mine is a great reminder to be thankful for family. What are you thankful for?