Having a grateful heart and developing an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness is truly something that can improve our world. The more we feel appreciation for things in life, big and small, the more our outlook on life improves and the kinder we can be to our fellow humans. Teaching students about gratitude (in more ways than learning to say “Thank you”) can positively impact their emotional well-being. These gratitude activities and lesson ideas include ways that you can help students not only show gratitude towards others but to experience the powerful effects of gratitude for themselves.

1) Teach the Vocabulary of Gratitude

When teaching my gratitude unit, I am sure to give students the vocabulary necessary to learn about the topic and experience it in deep and meaningful ways. I provide them with the definitions for gratitude, thankful, appreciation, mindfulness, value, and perception. I define gratitude as “an inner feeling and conscious recognition that you feel thankful for something or someone.”

2) Keep a Daily Gratitude JOURNAL

Research shows that consistent and frequent time spent reflecting on what one is grateful for can significantly increase one’s happiness and mood. Sometimes our lives are so busy, we forget the daily experiences and moments of gratitude throughout the week. A daily gratitude journal or log allows students to develop mindfulness by helping them capture the moments throughout the day when they should have or did feel gratitude.

3) Write “Thank You” Notes

Encourage students to think of someone they are grateful for in their school community, neighborhood, local community, or household and write them a thank you note or send them an email expressing gratitude. Have students think about how that person’s existence has a positive impact on their life and to think in ways big and small. You might even find my favorite way to teach kindness to be another tangible way to allow your students to show gratitude around the school and community.

4) Create a Gratitude Jar

Set up a gratitude jar and challenge students to create a habit of writing down one thing a day that they are grateful for to add to the classroom gratitude jar. This is an easy gratitude activity to set up and help students create a healthy daily habit.

5) Flip Complaints to an “Attitude of Gratitude”

It’s okay to complain about things that we are unhappy about, but it can also drain our ability to focus on the positive and keep up our emotional state. One of my favorite gratitude activities is to ask students to generate a list of complaints or negative thoughts they often have at home, school, and/or in social settings and show them how they can “flip” their complaints to an attitude of gratitude. For example, a student may flip “I hate when my parents make me eat vegetables at dinner.” to “I am grateful that my family shows concern for my health”. While we don’t want to ignore or trivialize students’ feelings, we can all agree that there are plenty of complaints that we can look at through the lens of gratitude.

6) Read Aloud Books about Gratitude

Incorporate children’s literature and picture books that touch on themes of gratitude. Spiral stories with gratitude examples of “wanting more and learning that what you have is enough,” “showing appreciation,” “selflessness and serving others,” and “gratitude for the unexpected surprises in life” throughout your year. You can click here if you need some read aloud recommendations for books about gratitude!

7) Use all Senses to Experience and Describe Gratitude

Have students think about and describe what a grateful mind thinks, grateful hands hold, grateful eyes see, grateful ears hear, what a grateful mouth tastes and says, and what a grateful heart feels. This is a powerful gratitude activity to do with students who struggle to grasp the concept of practicing gratitude.

8) Gratitude Poetry

Read aloud poems about gratitude to students (I love the ones in Thanks a Million by Nikki Grimes) and ask them to write their own poems about things they are grateful for.

(Note: This is an Amazon affiliate link so that you can easily find the book! As a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, I may earn advertising fees at no cost to you by linking to amazon.com. Read my full disclosure here. )

9) Buy (or have students make) Cheap Sunglasses

I weave sunglasses as a symbol of gratitude throughout my unit, telling students that gratitude is a matter of learning to change our perspective on what we have, want, and need. You can bring home this metaphor by having students make cheap sunglasses or grab some cheap ones from the Dollar Store or other wholesaler. Teach students to “increase the gratitude in their perspective” with a focus on looking at the world and our experiences through a new lens when we practice gratitude.

10) Show Videos about Gratitude

Video is a great way to share a new concept with students. “Gratitude is Good For You” from the John Templeton Foundation is one of the gratitude videos I share with my students during our gratitude unit.

11) Make a Gratitude Collage

Ask students to use photographs, magazine clippings, and their own artistic skills to create a collage representing things, people, or places they are grateful for. This gratitude activity is always a student favorite!

12) Analyze Gratitude Quotations

Have students reflect on popular quotes about gratitude and analyze the similarities and differences between them to generate big ideas about gratitude. I weave gratitude quotations throughout my gratitude unit and guide students to discuss them to deepen their opinions and understanding of gratitude.

13) Take a Gratitude Nature Walk

Asking students to go outside, slow down, and notice things they often take for granted can help them focus on gratitude outside of material objects. A gratitude nature walk is a strategy for developing mindfulness and a perfect complement to teaching students to think about gratitude through all 5 of their senses.

14) Make a Gratitude Web

Webs are great graphic organizers for getting students to generate new ideas. Ideas for a Gratitude Web: Feelings I Have When I Experience Gratitude; Examples of Non-Verbal Ways of Expressing Gratitude; Different Types of Gratitude; Ways Gratitude Improves Our Lives

15) Challenge students to “Pay It Forward”

Challenge students to think of a person that recently expressed gratitude to them and come up with a plan to “pay it forward” and pass on the expression of gratitude to another person, continuing the cycle.

16) Create Gratitude Symbols

Ask students to come up with a symbol that represents gratitude and can serve as a personal reminder to help them practice gratitude in difficult situations. Examples of symbols could include muscles (portraying that an attitude of gratitude must be developed and practiced to grow stronger), the Grinch’s heart (grew three sizes bigger when experiencing compassion, love, and gratitude from others), and a magnifying glass (changing your perspective to have an attitude of gratitude).

NEED MORE GRATITUDE ACTIVITIES AND DONE-FOR-YOU RESOURCES FOR TEACHING GRATITUDE?

You can manage to do each of these activities with a reflection journal and materials you have around the classroom, but if you want some of the work done for you, you can check out my Gratitude theme SEL unit. I use this unit for a 2-3 week morning meeting unit. It includes student journal pages, detailed and editable gratitude lesson plans, bulletin board materials with gratitude vocabulary and related gratitude quotations, and Google Slides for the teacher and a digital student notebook. This Gratitude theme SEL unit is also included in the SEL Morning Meeting MEGA Bundle that contains 17 social- emotional learning themes. If you’re looking to increase your social-emotional learning focus, you’ve come to the right place!

SEL THEMES TO GUIDE YOUR MORNING MEETINGS ALL YEAR

If you’d like more social-emotional learning theme units with a focus on encouraging students’ social, emotional, and academic success, you may be interested in the SEL Morning Meeting Mega Bundle of 17 theme units. With units focused on kindness, compassion, growth mindset, conflict resolution, perseverance, responsibility, managing emotions, and so much more, your engaging morning meeting plans are done for you and your students will love them! You can save 10% on the Mega Bundle of all 17 themes with the code MM10.