Gratitude

‘Among the things you can give and still keep are your word, your smile and a grateful heart.’

(Zig Ziglar)

Practicing gratitude is a great way of remembering to celebrate, appreciate, and take in the little joys, wins, and happy moments in life. Having gratitude doesn’t just happen overnight, it’s a practice

we have to foster every day.

Here are just a few ways you can encourage the expression of gratitude within your setting and establish it as a regular habit or

way of looking at the world.

A community within which gratitude is regularly expressed cultivates and inspires acts of kindness.

Keeping a Gratitude Journal

A gratitude journal works for both adults and children. It can be shared group journal or an individual one.

Let your group decorate their journal, either the cover or the first inside page. This allows them to be creative and

to make it their own. They can even make their own journal from scratch.

The journal can include writing or drawing about the things that they are thankful for.

Give time for your group to write or draw in their gratitude journals daily, this helps establish gratitude as

a way of being, a habit that they will eventually do without prompting.

Find opportunities to share extracts from the gratitude journals, this sharing will help create a sense of

community and connection.

The Best thing about…

This is a fun game to help your group notice the good in other things or people. It has a slight competitive

element to it, but you can adapt this game to remove this if you want!

Divide the group into 2 teams. Pick a team to go first. Read a list of things or people, like Grandma or trees or chocolate, and each person on the team has to say one good thing about that person or thing within 5 seconds, or a time limit of your choice. If everyone is successful

then the team gets a point. If they are not then the other team gets a chance to answer about the same person or

thing.

Thank you Circle

Have everyone sitting in a circle. Throw a bean bag to one of the group. They stand and list one of the things they are grateful for, then they throw the bean bag to

someone else and they stand up and say what they are grateful for. Do this until everyone in the circle has had a

chance to speak.

Gratitude Jar

Decorate the jar using buttons, ribbon, glitter, etc. Have little slips of paper prepared and each day the

group writes down one thing they are grateful for and put it in the jar. You can help with writing for younger

children. Set a deadline, such as one month later or a special

event. On that day have everyone sit down and read together all the things that everyone is grateful for from the jar.

Gratitude Crafts and Arts

There are many simple crafts to express gratitude. For example, a Leaf Garland, where children write or draw

what they are grateful for on a leaf and then hang it up. A similar concept is a thank you sunflower where they use the petals to write on. You can also do a gratitude

tree or chain or bunting.

Gratitude posters

Designing posters which visually express gratitude and promote gratitude and acts of kindness are a very easy way of creating a

display for your space.