Feel & Express Gratitude
Dear Subscribers:
If you have limited time to read through the entire blog, here are a few play-based activities focusing on activities to enjoy together as you support your child’s growth in different ways to feel and express gratitude.
1. Read and Sing together 📚
With school now in session, read books together to learn more about gratitude as characters’ actions show how to express feelings of appreciation, compassion or empathy. You can locate these books at your school or public library or click on the links below and share the stories or sings some songs.
- The Grateful book by Angela Kohler. (2 mins.)The story inspires discussions between adults and children about gratitude, helping both to focus on gratitude as a practice, and learning that we should not take the world around us for granted.
- The Sharing Circle by Theresa Larsen-Jonasson. (7:06 mins.) When two red foxes have an argument which breaks apart their community, a gentle buffalo decides to take a braid of sweetgrass to a local elder and asks her to help with a sharing circle for all the animals.
- Those Shoes by Maribeth Beolts. (7:55 mins.) Everyone at school has a pair of fancy high-top sneakers and Jeremy really wants a pair of his own. But what he needs and what his grandmother can afford, are new boots for winter. A heartwarming story that teaches the value of selflessness and appreciating what one has.
- Spongebob Squarepants – “Attitude of Gratitude” (1:04 mins.)
- I’ve got a Gratitude Attitude (2:36 mins.)
- Thankful, Grateful, Appreciatel by The Juicebox Jukebox (3:47 mins)
- Grateful: A Rap Love Song to the World (4:58 mins.)
2. Create together: Puzzles, Crafts, Singing, Drawing and Constructing 🧩
- Find ideas here on how to create a Gratitude journal and a list of prompts to inspire their writing.
- Have your children create and design their own thank-you note using their imagination. Here is a sample Thank-you note.
3. Explore together 🌍
- Animals can bring out feelings of compassion and empathy so if you are Interested in an enjoyable Fall activity, schedule a visit to your local farm or if in the lower mainland visit Maplewood Farm when the leaves are turning, the cider is hot and pumpkins are plentiful. It’s the perfect season to visit Rosie, the Sicilian miniature donkey, and Fluffy, one of the farm’s giant New Zealand white rabbits.
4. Engage and Interact: 👭
- Get moving and enjoy the Gratitude Amble or any other of these 13 Most Popular Gratitude Exercises and Activities
- Wondering how best to teach gratitude? Here are 22 Videos to Help Kids Understand Gratitude.
5. Reflect: Thoughts of the Day about Gratitude 💭
