Teaching Children to Notice, Appreciate, and Express Thankfulness

Welcome😊🖍️

Last week, we explored how we, as leaders, can reflect on gratitude and put it into action. If you missed, you can catch up now. This week, we turn our focus to the classroom, where children first learn to recognize and express thankfulness.

Teaching gratitude isn’t just a seasonal activity; it’s a powerful tool for social-emotional growth, relationship-building, and creating a positive classroom culture. Teachers play a central role in modeling appreciation, guiding children to notice small moments of kindness, and fostering habits of thankfulness that can extend into family life. In this newsletter, we’ll explore how to teach gratitude, why it matters, and practical strategies for engaging both children and families in this important practice.

Why Gratitude Matters in the Classroom

• Gratitude helps children develop empathy🧡 and awareness of others.

• It encourages positive thinking💡 and emotional regulation.

• Children who practice gratitude are more likely to demonstrate kindness💖, cooperation, and resilience.

• Gratitude nurtures a sense of belonging and strengthens💪🏽 classroom community.

Teachers’ Role in Modeling Gratitude

• Children learn by observing🔍. Your words, actions, and reactions set the tone.

• Verbalize🗣️ appreciation for students’ efforts: “I notice how you shared your blocks with your friend, that was kind!”

• Show gratitude for colleagues and families👨🏾‍👩🏼‍👧🏽‍👦🏼; your actions teach children that appreciation extends beyond themselves.

• Integrate gratitude into daily routines📆 rather than treating it as a one-off activity.

How to Teach Gratitude

1. Stories, Songs, and Circle Time Reflections

   • Use books and songs about thankfulness to introduce the concept.

   • Encourage children to share aloud what they are grateful for during circle time.

2. Create a “Thankful Tree”

   • Display a tree on a classroom wall where students and teachers add leaves with words or drawings of what they appreciate.

   • This visual reminder reinforces gratitude as an ongoing practice.

3. Drawing and Dictation Activities

   • Invite children to draw or dictate short notes about what they’re thankful for.

   • Display these works on hallways, bulletin boards, or family communication boards to celebrate gratitude publicly.

4. Practice “Thankful Thinking” in Daily Routines

   • Pause before meals, transitions, or at the end of the day to name something good that happened.

   • Encourage children to recognize small, everyday moments, a friend’s smile, a fun activity, or a kind gesture.

Leadership in Action🎬

As leaders, support your teachers by providing resources, modeling gratitude, and celebrating their creative strategies. Offer guidance on integrating these activities into existing routines and create a system to share classroom gratitude stories across your program, showing that gratitude isn’t just a concept, it’s a lived value.

Teaching gratitude in the classroom gives children the language, skills, and mindset to notice and appreciate the world around them. As teachers model thankfulness, guide reflections, and create opportunities for children to express appreciation, they lay the foundation for strong social-emotional growth and a positive classroom culture.

Simple practices like stories, songs, the “Thankful Tree,” and daily moments of reflection help children experience gratitude in meaningful, tangible ways. Over the next week, we’ll continue our gratitude journey by exploring ways to engage families, strengthening connections between home and school so that the practice of thankfulness becomes a shared experience for children, teachers, and families alike.

Till Next time,

Jen Sprafka📋

P.S. Click here for songs to share with your teachers for a gratitude filled classroom!

P.P.S. Looking to add books to the classroom library about Gratitude? I got you here!