Studies have shown that feeling “thankful” at a young age can help our children to grow up as happier people. Some studies have even linked feeling thankful to everything from improved psychological well-being to better physical health. In these studies, people who feel gratitude tend to sleep better and even live longer. In addition, people who feel grateful for things that happened to them in the past have been shown to feel happier in the present and more hopeful about their future. 

Clearly there are a lot of reasons to encourage our young children to feel and express their thankful feelings. So let’s get started by helping our children to notice things they are thankful for and then talk with them about how those things make them feel!

Pot o’ Gold

• Find a small pot or jar and decorate it if you wish.

• Find something small that can be the “gold” to add to your “pot” such as pennies, gummies, fish crackers, etc.

• During the week, each time you notice or talk about feeling “thankful” be sure to add a piece of “gold” to the pot.

• At the end of the week, you can count/eat the “gold” as you reflect on the “thankful” feelings that you noticed all week long.

NOTICE and LABEL “Thankful” Throughout the Week

• Watch for times when your child looks like they are feeling thankful.  Talk about how they feel and why?  What does their face look like? What does their body feel like?

• Notice (or recall) times when you yourself feel thankful  and “talk aloud” about it with your child. Talk about what has made you feel thankful.  Point out how your face looks and how your body looks and feels when you are feeling thankful.

• Don’t forget to notice and talk about characters on TV and in books who are feeling thankful.  Ask your children how they know the character is thankful and why they think he/she might be feeling thankful. 

Activities

Make a Thankful Poster Together

• Gather a large piece of paper or poster board, markers, crayons, photos, magazines or you can print Google Images to fill your poster. 

• Together with your children talk about the things/people that you are glad to have in your life.  Ask what things and people they are glad to have.  Tell them that you feel thankful to have these things/people in your life. 

• Then cut out or draw or print photos/images of those things/people to attach to your poster.

• Have fun and make it artistic!

• Talk about how your face would look and how your body might feel if you felt thankful. 

• Keep adding to your poster throughout the week as you have thankful feelings.

Make a Thankful Paper Chain

• You will need strips of paper, markers, crayons, pencil and a stapler or tape.

• Start by writing “I feel thankful for…” on a paper strip and then make it into a loop and staple it.

• At the end of each day reflect together on things that made you feel thankful.

• For each thing you come up with, write it on a strip of paper and then add it to your Thankful Chain.

• At the end of the week review all the things (links on your chain) that made you feel thankful.  See how long you can make your chain by the end of the week!

Thankful Yoga

You will need:  1 sheet of regular paper, scissors, tape and a yoga mat or other soft surface.

Print this Gratitude Yoga Exercises for Kids  Poster by Yoga Basics.

Post it a place where you and your child can see it and practice the poses together.

If you have a yoga mat, you can lay it down close to the poster or you can just do your yoga poses on the carpet.

Go through the flow of yoga poses on the poster three times.

Either before you begin or when you are finished you can talk with your child about each pose and what it means. Talk about why you are thankful for those things and how it feels to be thankful.

Thankful Game

• You will need construction paper, scissors, markers/crayons.

• Cut(or have your child cut) five different colored circles out of construction paper. Or you could use white paper and have your child color the circles each a different color.

• Create a key with the following (colors can be changed)...

          Red - Name a person you are thankful for.

          Blue - Name a food you are thankful for.

          Purple - Name a thing you are thankful for.

          Green - Name a place you are thankful for.

          Yellow - You choose something you are thankful for.

• Whomever is “It” will hide these colored circles around the house and the other players will try to find them. 

• When someone finds a color, they can read the key and then do what their color says.

Encourage your child to also think and talk about how being thankful looks on your face and feels in your body.

Feelings Book

• Talk with your child about times when he/she has felt thankful.

• Show each other what your thankful face looks like.

• Either take a picture of your child’s thankful face and print it or have your child draw her thankful face. (Use a mirror if your child is going to draw their face.)

• Protect the picture by slipping it into a plastic baggie (quart size works well).

• You can also make calm, angry, happy, worried, excited, lonely, surprised, sad, silly and proud and bored face pages to add to your book. (These are the feelings previously talked about in this series.)

• As you learn about new emotions don’t forget to add those pages to your book. You can tape the baggies together along the plastic seal to create the binding of your book using duct tape or packaging tape.

• Read your feelings book often. Try to help your child remember times when he/she felt that feeling and share times when you felt the same way.

More Activities

Feelings Bucket Toss

• You will need 4 buckets/bins, 4 bean bags/balls, tape, paper and markers.

• Together with your child create 4 different feelings faces. Be sure that “thankful” is one of the faces you make.

• Tape a large feelings face on the outside of each bucket/bin..

• Tell stories where the character is feeling one of the feelings on the buckets.

• The child who is it then gets to tell you which feeling the character is experiencing in the story and tries to toss his ball/bean bag into the correct bucket/bin.

• If your children are old enough...you might encourage one of them to make up stories to fit with the emotions.

Thankful Balloon Keep Up

• You will need a balloon for this game.

• Stand and a large space and try to keep the balloon in the air.

• Tell your children if the balloon falls...whomever let the balloon fall gets to share something that made them feel thankful.

• Keep playing until players run out of things to share that make them feel thankful. 

• After this you might vary the game by allowing your children to share any emotion that they felt that day and why when they drop the balloon.

Thankful “Slap Jack”

• You will need a normal deck of playing cards and 2 players for this game. 

• Explain to your child that you will turn all the cards in a pile face down.

• You will each take turns turning over one card in a new pile right beside the face down pile.  If you turn over a card with hearts on it the first player to slap the card and the cards under it gets to keep the pile.

• If you get the pile you also get to share something that makes you feel thankful.

• Play continues until all the face down cards have been played.

• Whoever has the most cards at the end is the winner!

Thankful Card

• You will need paper, crayons, markers, glue, scissors.

• Encourage your child to think of someone they are thankful for.

• Have them create a picture for that person.

• Then have your child write (or ask your child if you can help him/her) the words, “I feel thankful for you!” wherever they want it on their card.

• Deliver your card and encourage your child to notice how happy they make that person feel.

Name the Feelings Sensory Bin

• You will need a large bin, dry beans, rice, sand or coffee grounds (smells particularly yummy), plastic eggs or rocks (big enough to show a feeling face), and other scooping and pouring tools (measure cups, spoons, bowls, etc.)

• Set up your bin so that it is filled with about 2 inches of whatever dry substance you chose. 

• Add the scooping and pouring tools.

• Finally draw feeling faces on rocks or plastic eggs and add them into the bin.  Be sure to add the “thankful” feeling face to the bin.

• As your child explores the sensory bin, be sure to encourage them to notice the feeling on the rock/egg he/she finds, label it and talk about a time when you both experienced that feeling. 

• Be sure to focus on the “thankful” feeling and review other feelings you have talked about with your child. (The following are feelings that have been discussed up to this point in this series and could also be used in this activity:  calm, angry, happy, worried, excited, lonely, surprised, sad, silly and proud, bored)