Ten Resources for Teaching Gratitude This Thanksgiving
We are coming up on Thanksgiving in a year where we have a lot of complaints. Life right now may seem too hard, too scary, and just too much for many of us. So I think it's even more important in times like these to focus on cultivating gratitude in our students and ourselves in a meaningful and lasting way. Use these resources in your lesson plans this month to hit on this popular SEL topic.
1. Kid President's 25 Reasons to Be Thankful
This kid gets me every time. I don't know if he'll become president, but he sure would make a good educator or psychologist. Begin your discussion on gratitude by watching this video.
2. What is Gratitude? Written and Voiced by Stephanie Bierman, Program Director
This quick, 2 minute video defines gratitude and explains that you have control over your own attitude and thinking. It is another great introduction video.
3. ClassDojo's Gratitude Activities
Using ClassDojo's behavior management software isn't required for your students to engage in their gratitude activities. ClassDojo has outlined three activities for you and your students to try: Statements of Gratitude, Gratitude in the Greater World, and Gratitude for Loved Ones. These can be completed in your favorite software. Try making videos in Seesaw or Flipgrid. Writing can be done using Seesaw, ABCYa's Storymaker, Book Creator, or your regular word processing software like Google Docs and Word.
4. ClassDojo's Moods and Attitudes and Positive Thinking Video Resources
These resources work well in conjunction with ClassDojo's gratitude activities. They help students to understand that they have control over their moods, attitudes, and can change their negative self-talk. Perhaps you would like to begin with the Moods and Attitudes video series and follow up with the Positive Thinking videos. Then make the link between the ideas shared in these videos and the theme of gratitude by asking, "How can focusing on the things we are grateful for help us take control of our attitude?"
5. Mind Yeti on Seesaw
This activity starts with a guided meditation video on gratitude by Mind Yeti. Available here in Spanish. Then students are asked to create a picture or collage of things that make them happy. This can be accomplished using physical materials like magazines, photographs, glue, and paper or can be done online. Seesaw allows you to add multiple pictures on their drawing canvas. They can be photos taken right in Seesaw's drawing canvas, uploaded from your camera roll, or found on the Internet. Taking photos using your device is easiest for tablet users. Using images from the Internet is easiest for students that use Chromebooks and computers. Simply have them open a new tab to search, copy the picture they want, and then return to the Seesaw tab to paste the picture onto the canvas. Make sure your students are using pictures with the proper permissions. See item 6 on last week's list to read more.
6. Pear Deck's Practicing Gratitude Templates
Pear Deck has a set of templates you can choose from to add to your lessons on gratitude. Make sure to assign these through Pear Deck so they remain interactive.
7. Big Life Journal's 20 Ideas to Cultivate an Attitude of Gratitude in Children
Big Life Journal is a product for parents and teachers. You can buy their journals and printables, but they also offer plenty of ideas for free as well. This post links you to some paid products and has a great list of ideas at the bottom for cultivating gratitude in children. Talk about this list with your students or turn their ideas into activities of your own.
8. Epic School on Flipgrid
Read We Are Grateful, a story about a Cherokee community, on Epic and then have your students complete the prompt on Flipgrid to tell what they are grateful for.
9. PBS Kids Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Make a Card Interactive
This is a cute card maker for our youngest learners. Help them select the "Thank You!" card and add pictures and shapes to it. The cards can be printed when they are done. No literacy skills required!
10. Thanku: Poems of Gratitude on Epic
Read from this anthology of poetry with your students and have them create their own poems. It is rated on Epic for students age 7-9, but it could work for older students as well. If you want students to compose poems online here's a fun poetry machine that will provide a brief explanation and example of each type of poem.
Comments
Post a Comment