According to numerous scientific studies, gratitude is one of the most important ways for us to get a happiness boost and provides us with so many wonderful psychological, physical, and interpersonal benefits. It improves our health, reduces stress, and helps us focus on the positive. Stepping back and being thankful for what we have gives us energy, inspires us, and transforms us. It helps us realize that life is truly a gift.
Keeping a gratitude journal has been shown to increase our sense of happiness by forcing us to acknowledge the positive moments in our day, no matter how insignificant they may seem. Whether it is a smile from a stranger, a good grade on a test, a gift from a relative, or an awe-inspiring sunset, we begin to feel calmer and more joyful by appreciating these experiences.
Our children can greatly benefit from expressing gratitude, but it’s important that we keep it fun for them. Here is a list of 15 creative ways for your children to express gratitude stories throughout the year. Most of these activities are do-it-yourself projects that will be fun for the whole family.
- Alphabet Gratitude Game: Inspired by my daughter learning her letters last year, I developed this game as a simple exercise for my children to say what they are thankful for using each letter of the alphabet.
- Gratitude Blog: Children love seeing their words online-especially when mom is a blogger. You can set up a family gratitude journal blog (password protected, of course). You can even involve grandparents and cousins, no matter how far away they live. Challenge everyone to submit a post each week throughout the year.
- Gratitude Yoga Sequence: Children’s yoga has become so popular over the past few years, popping up in schools, camps, and sports facilities all over. Kids love doing yoga, and it offers so many positive health benefits such as calming their bodies and minds. Kids Yoga Stories wrote an adorable Gratitude Yoga Sequence that includes 20 yoga poses and correlating expressions of gratitude.
- Family Gratitude Tree: Creating a gratitude tree is a way to present everyone’s gratitude notes in a friendly way. Here is a second idea that uses real branches.
- Picture Frame Dry Erase Board: This is a very clever way to show what we are thankful for. Because it is a dry erase board, your children can use it over and over again, updating it with their new gratitude moments.
- Thank You Videos: Children enjoy watching videos of themselves. They will have a blast talking about what they are thankful for and watching it as much as they want. You can have them pretend to be reporters and their gratitude is the news of the day or they can act out scenes from the wonderful moments they had.
- Gratitude Scavenger Hunt: What a fun way to talk about gratefulness! You can print out a free downloadable list to guide you on your gratitude scavenger hunt. To capture the moment, take pictures and then print them out and have your children make a collage.
- Gratitude Vision Board: Similar to a goal setting vision board, this is a way for children to express what they are grateful for.
- Wheel Of Thankfulness: Wheel of Fortune? No, try making a wheel of thankfulness where your children can add what they appreciate.
- Thank You Bank: I love this idea. This decorative hanging jar holds your kids’ gratitude notes all year long. By hanging it up in your home where everyone can see, they will be reminded to say thank you everyday.
- Gratitude Mobile: This is a simple way to display your gratitude notes; you can also use a hanger to create your mobile.
- Say Thanks Recordings: Record your children’s gratitude journal on a phone or iPad. Once you have the recordings, you can get really creative by posting them online for others to listen to or you can even put the words to music and create a song or rap using highlights of what they said. For gratitude song inspiration, check out the Gratitude and Kindness collection by Happy Kids Songs.
- Thankful Wind Spinners: These paper spirals look easy to make and are a wonderful way to showcase your gratitude list. The kids will enjoy watching it spin around in the wind outside.
- Thankful Book. Learn how to put together a gratitude journal using your own photographs. Although this project is geared toward toddlers, it can be easily be adapted to fit any age by having them write their own thank you notes and possibly even drawing their own pictures.
- Thanksgiving Gratitude Turkey. This adorable craft is simple and perfect for younger children. It will make a great centerpiece for your Thanksgiving table.
Which of these projects will you try with your children?
tara pittman
Love all these ideas. Great way to teach my boys .
Brooke
LOVE this! We will be using these today! No better time to start than the season of giving.
Christine Tatum
These are all really great ideas. I am especially excited to do the grateful yoga sequence and Thanksgiving turkey with my niece.
Sandi Schwartz
Let us know how it goes. Happy Thanksgiving!
Lisa Lewis, MD
Fantastic ideas. My 8 year old son is a reluctant writer, so the Thankful Book will be a great tool to motivate him. I shared this post on FB as a lovely reminder - the power of gratitude. Thank you!
Tasha - mummy&moose
Great ideas!
Christy
I love the thankful blog idea, and getting extended family involved with it!
Sandi Schwartz
Once it’s set up, please share with us!
Becki Svare
Great ideas! I especially like the gratitude tree!
Paula Kiger
Great ideas here. Thanks!
Ailie
I am a big believer in gratitude. These ideas are amazing. I must try some of them out.
Sherry Smothermon-Short
I love the Gratitude Scavenger Hunt! This will be a great activity for Cub Scouts because they’ll be moving around. You don’t often find an activity about gratitude that involves movement.
I’m sharing with my readers! Thanks for the information!
Dizzy Mama
Greatest suggestion, ever. Thank you. I think as we wrap up the year, we can guide children to reflect and be actionable about gratitude.
Puneri
Awesome ideas. I ‘ll be trying out a few this time for sure!
Victoria Onken
So many beautiful ideas! I’ll try some with my daughter 🙂
tanya
I love these ideas. Since we’re far from family, I think we may adopt that video idea and send it to the grandparents. Thanks for the nudge!
Jess
Great ideas, and conveniently timed. I’m just starting my gratitude homeschooling unit today. <3
Sandi Schwartz
I am so thrilled to hear that.
Meghan Riley
Thank you for sharing! I’ve actually been brainstorming ideas for teaching my girls about gratitude. My oldest is only 4 and most ideas are directed at older kids, but I like your idea for the Alphabet Gratitude Game. That’s right where she’s at learning new words and reading.
Aparna
All these activities are so wonderful and doable ! Never heard of Gratitude Blog and yoga before but these sound interesting .
ShootingStarsMag
Oh, I really like the Picture Frame Dry Erase Board. Thanks for sharing!
-lauren
Val Arcas
This! This is what I’ve been talking about lately. We need to show the future generations how to be kind, thankful and grateful in order to have the best world we can have. I love the idea of yoga!
Jessi Smith
I love this! I do a “what made you happy this week” Blog post every week. I also teach 4th grade and I use google classroom to ask my kids the same question, “what made you happy this week?” They love answering the question and replying to others. I think it’s super important to show gratitude and appreciation even for the smallest things.
Sandi Schwartz
Sounds very interesting. I am going to check out your blog.
Caroline
Lots of great ideas here! I have a 5 year old and would love to start doing some of these with him.
Danielle @ A Sprinkle of Joy
What a great list! Thanks for sharing.
Tiffani
Yesss! We’ve been trying so hard to work on this and these ideas are great!! Thanks!
Mykee
These are some really great tips! I agree expressing gratitude and helping kids see the world around them is so important. We are participating in something called the #familyservicechallenge this year from Thanksgiving til Christmas Eve. You should check it out. You can find info at http://www.familyservicechallenge.org
Sandi Schwartz
Thanks for letting us know.
Lisa Keifer
These are all great ideas, but I really love the idea of a Thank You Bank. I want to start that with my son now, writing his ideas down for him until he can write them himself.
Shauna
Love the Gratitude Vision boards idea ❤
Renee
What fun, great ideas! Gratitude is huge in our house. My kids would love some of these!
Alpana Deo
Awesome..I loved them all. Every pointer, I was trying to se which one O liked the most but it was hard to pick as I liked each one of them.
http://mothersgurukul.com/teaching-delayed-gratification/
Heather
I’m going to implement some of these tips! My kids really need a lesson in gratitude!
Lucy
I love this! All amazing and most importantly TANGIBLE ideas. My family could benefit so much from these. Although a family blog sounds so awesome and first on my list to try. In the rush, we fail to make our everyday attitude one of thanksgiving. Thank you for these.
Heather
These are all great ideas. Especially loved the Gratitude Yoga. I will be looking into that for sure.
Kori Evans
This is an absolutely wonderful post!!! Its so easy to tell kids to use their manners to say please and thank you. But we over look how important it is for them to know why they are saying it! Thank you for this post!!
Meghann
These are great ideas! I love the gratitude journals. I know adults use them, but great idea for kids too!
Karen Thurm Safran, author of "Parenting—Let's Make a Game of It"
FABULOUS ideas!! I especially like the Grattitude Thankful Book. This is a great way to share memories creatively while also showing appreciation.
Mary Wanjiru
This is wonderful! I don’t have kiddies of my own yet but, one day, this could be a fun family tradition!
Thank you for these ideas.
Frances
You have so many great ideas here. Thanks for sharing this!….Great activities for the whole family!….. I never thought of a gratitude mobile. Will have to try this with my little ones😊
Brooke Ressell
You have so many fun ideas in this post. I really love the alphabet gratitude bank and the thank you bank. Both would be easy to incorporate into your family dinner routine.
Katherine
That’s a great list! Thanks for sharing! I never would have thought of the scavenger hunt!
Delightful Parenting
Wonderful ideas to follow for kids and all, thanks:)
Marlieke Kemp-Janssen
I love it! Thanks for sharing this useful round-up.