Gratitude Bundle: An Easy Way to Help Kids Show Gratitude

Inside: Teach kids to be grateful with this Gratitude Bundle that makes teaching gratitude easy and fun.

My daughter spent the evening complaining about her phone.

Complaining about her iPhone that was handed down to her (twice removed) in order for her to connect with friends and family who live out of state.

But she doesn’t like the battery life. And the phone doesn’t let her use some of the features I have on my phone.

So she wants a new phone, please, because hers is just too old.

Instead of being grateful for the phone and the fact that she’s super lucky and blessed to even have a phone, she was focused on what she doesn’t have and what she wished she had instead.

So after giving her the choice of no phone or being grateful for the phone she has, we had another talk about gratitude.

But teaching our kids to be grateful can’t be a one-and-done conversation. Obviously, since we’re still talking about being grateful for her phone.

So we have to consistently and intentionally teach gratefulness and give kids specific ways to show we’re grateful for all we have.

And for that, we use the resources in this Gratitude Bundle.

Why Gratitude for Kids is So Essential:

I read a meme the other day that sums up gratitude: Happy people aren’t grateful, grateful people are happy.

And science has proven it: Grateful people are happier people.

This is why it’s essential to help kids focus on gratitude year-round, not just at Thanksgiving time.

Focusing on what we’re grateful for is also an essential part of helping kids focus more on giving and less on getting, which is essential during the holiday season and around their birthdays.

But gratitude doesn’t just always happen.

We have to explicitly and intentionally teach kids how to be more thankful for what they have.

So, we can read gratitude books like these with them:

Gratitude is My Superpower

Zen Pig: The Art of Gratitude

The Giving Snowman

Thankful Book

Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks

But we can also explicitly teach gratitude and this Gratitude Bundle makes that easy.

What’s Included in the Gratitude Bundle:

This Gratitude Bundle comes with:

1. I am Grateful Emergent Reader in color

2. I am Grateful Emergent Reader in black and white

3. I am Grateful Emergent Reader with no illustrations…kids illustrate!

4. Grateful Discussion Starters

5. I am Thankful for writing prompts

6. I Thank Essential Workers Emergent Reader in color

7. I Thank Essential Workers Emergent Reader in black and white

8. I Thank Essential Workers Early Reader in color

9. I Thank Essential Workers Early Reader in black and white

10. Thanking Essential Workers Discussion Starters

11. Thanking Essential Workers Writing prompts

12. Thank Essential Workers coloring sheets with and without writing

13. Thanksgiving-themed Gratitude Notes

14. Year-Round Gratitude Notes

15. Gratitude Pumpkin in color and black and white

16. Thank School Staff Notecards (in multiple colors…choose your school color!)

17. Recipe for Meaningful Thank you Notes for home and for school (perfect for field trips, visitors, speakers, etc.)

How to Use the Gratitude Bundle:

Purchase the Gratitude Bundle and then print out the resources you want to use first.

You can start by talking about gratitude and why it’s so essential with the Discussion Starters.

Choose which version of The I am Grateful Emergent Reader you want to use (color, black and white, or the no illustrations version). If you use the black and white version, encourage kids to use these skin color crayons so they can draw their friends and family and teacher.

Each version is interactive on the last page where students can add what they’re grateful for.

You can also use the Thank Essential Workers Emergent or Early Reader so they can start to appreciate the community helpers around them who are essential to making our lives easier. The emergent reader is best for PreK, Kinder and 1st graders.

The early reader is best for 1st-5th graders.

Your kids can also color and or write thank you notes for the essential workers in their life.

There are plenty of writing opportunities to connect creative writing to gratitude, including our Gratitude Kindness Notes and our Gratitude Pumpkin.

There are also expository writing prompts to help kids connect gratitude and the discussion with their writing skills.

There’s also real-life writing practice with these Recipes for a Meaningful Thank You Notes are perfect to help kids write thank you notes either for gifts or for school visits and field trips like these. Print these out to help kids write their thank you notes.

Or they can use these Thank you notes to show gratitude to the school staff. You can print them off in your school color and have kids fill in why they’re grateful for the adults who help them at school.