November is a month to celebrate thankfulness and gratitude! Help foster the spirit of thankfulness with a few Thanksgiving activities and a daily gratitude journal for the month of November. Don't forget to encourage the kids to write thankful notes to friends, teachers, community workers and family members.
With the year winding down as we enter into the holiday season, I always like to pause and take some intentional moments to practice gratitude with my students. This is a great habit to include children in because so often the holiday craze or busyness of life can distract from the many simple pleasures we have.
One way to include students in this habit is by creating a simple Gratitude Journal! I love using these Wide Ruled Half-Sized Composition Books for any type of writing with kids because they are less intimidating than a full size notebook.
I love how the orange color or the notebook matches the Fall season. The kids decorated the covers with these Silly Thanksgiving Self-Adhesive Shapes. Stickers make everything better! You can even give them a sticker for each idea they share in this Gratitude Journal.
There are many ways you can use this Gratitude journal. Grab this free cover and list of 20 Gratitude Journal Prompts to help get you started! The possibilities are endless and perhaps your own kids will become inspired to create their own topic!
Another fun activity to think of what to reflect on when adding to your gratitude journal is using this Color Your Own I'm Thankful for Thanksgiving Place Mats as a conversation starter.
These place mats give kids a choice to reflect and write about things in their lives that they are grateful for. I love the conversations that came from these Color Your Own I'm Thankful for Thanksgiving Place Mats. For example, even if we don't have a bike or know how to ride a bike yet, the kids quickly adapted it to being grateful for parents who are willing to teach them to ride a bike or having a healthy body that can learn how to ride a bike in the future. I loved hearing their creative ideas!
After they reflected on all the people in their lives who they are grateful for, they each chose to write a letter on these fantastic, Kraft Paper Thank You Cards. Learning to write thank you cards is such a precious life skill. 
There is something about a getting a good ol' fashioned card instead of a thank you text or email. Also, having them write a card gets them off a tablet, win-win!
What is better than reflecting on what you personally are grateful for? Hearing others do the same! Have you kids complete this Color Your Own I Am Thankful for Wheels and then share out the top things that they are thankful for. You can save this to do around the Thanksgiving table or in a classroom setting with morning meetings. 
Last but not least, it is important not to just ask kids to reflect on why they are grateful. Equally as important, is to model it by showing how you are grateful for them! I do this by giving specific, positive affirmations when they are being kind or helpful. To make it something more concrete, I added these moments of gratitude onto these personalized Sunflower Bulletin Board Cutouts.
Taking a moment to do this is simple, yet powerful because it reinforces and normalizes living a reflective life. These sunflowers can be hung on a bulletin board, or on a refrigerator as a little trophy of ways that your little sunflowers shined brightly! Acknowledging moments when they show big (or small) moments of kindness helps them feel good about themselves and encourages more positive behavior. 
I have loved making November a month of stopping, reflecting, feeling grateful and expressing that gratitude. It is an easy habit to get into that will only make students more successful in life as they learn to be thankful humans who share gratitude and kindness to all!
