How often do we have students that complain about EVERYTHING? Perhaps it isn’t just the students, but it is the teacher down the hall or even. . .you. A little dose of gratitude can go a long way in reducing complaining and giving students and ourselves a new perspective on the day.

“Gratitude and Attitude are not challenges, they are choices.” Robert Braathe. When we wake up in the morning we choose our attitude, and we choose to be thankful or disgruntled. Imagine a classroom filled with students that are thankful and have positive attitudes. Music to my ears!

Lots of research has been done about the effects of gratitude on people. Overwhelmingly the research determines that grateful people are happier people. Grateful people are looking at what is going right instead of what is going wrong. We want to be happy, and we want happy students. Let’s dive into some ways to teach gratitude.

Teaching Gratitude

Model Gratitude

Students are watching you all of the time! Show them what gratitude looks like. Their parents may only complain all of the time. Demonstrate good manners such as thanking students for doing something nice.

As you go throughout your day, point out things to be grateful for. “I am so grateful the sun is shining today!” “Today I am grateful that our class is paying attention to the math lesson.” “I am grateful that I have an umbrella because I had to walk in the rain this morning.” The list can go on and on. Students will start picking up on what gratitude looks like, and you will start feeling happier.

Find the silver lining in less-than-optimal situations. If you forgot to make enough copies for the class point out the silver lining in the situation. The silver lining might be that the class was able to take a quick brain break as you went to make more copies. Another silver lining was that you were able to make Mrs. King smile while you were at the copy machine.

Help students find the silver lining when they are complaining. At first, they might need you to show them the silver lining. The next time, ask them to find it for themselves. You can always give them hints if they get stuck!

Praise Gratitude Behavior

Show students praise students when you see them showing gratitude. Praise the students in front of the entire class. “Tommy, I love the way you thanked Timmy for helping you!” “Sally, you found the silver lining when we ran out of time for you to present today.”

Students love praise and recognition. They want to please you! Students will also begin to learn from the behaviors of others.

Discuss Gratitude

Take time in a Classroom Community Meeting or Circle Time to discuss gratitude. You can also talk about gratitude as you are seeing it in the classroom. Try a Thankful Thursday take 5 and give everyone around the room an opportunity to share what they are thankful for.

Take your gratitude conversations deeper by asking questions such as “How does it make you feel when they did something nice for you?” “Why do you think they did that for you?” and “How can you show your appreciation.”

Students have not often thought about what gratitude feels like or why someone would do something for them. These questions give them an opportunity to discover and discuss their feelings. You can also talk with students about how to show gratitude and appreciation. Do you just say “Thank you.”? Are there other ways to show appreciation such as doing something kind in return or writing a note?

Practice Gratitude in the Classroom

Take 5

Take 5 is an opportunity to build community in the classroom. It is a 5-minute activity that gets students thinking and talking. Take 5 activities can be done in many ways. You can write a question on the board for students to write their answers to. Have a class discussion or n anonymous “snowball” activity. Snowball activities are when students write the answer to a question on the paper. Altogether the class wads up their paper and begins throwing them around the room like snowballs. When you say stop they each pick up a piece of paper and then read it to the class.

Thankful Thursday or Gratitude Tuesday are excellent Take 5 activities that you can practice with your students weekly to increase their gratitude muscles.

Gratitude Jar

A gratitude jar is a jar that you have on your desk or at another designated location in the room. During their free time, students have the opportunity to write something they are grateful for. Once a week you can pull slips of paper out of the jar and read them to the class. It is an amazing experience when students write about other students. “I am thankful that Sam helped me figure out the math problem.” “When I was having a bad day, Alex gave me a compliment.”

Write Thank You Notes

Spend a little time with your students writing thank you notes. Discuss with students how receiving a thank-you note might feel. Then pick someone to write a thank you note for. This might be a parent, friend, teacher, support staff at your school, community member, or active duty military.

Thank You Project

Students can be extremely creative and often have more ideas than us! Use their creativity to create a class project to demonstrate their thankfulness to someone or a group of people. Your class might decide to focus on people at school or out in the community. Your Thank-you Project could be as simple as writing thank-you notes or an act of service.

Thankful Hand Turkeys

For younger students or older students with a bit of nostalgia write 5 things you are thankful for on a paper cut-out hand turkey. You can be even more creative by displaying the turkeys around the school or putting them together to spell a word on the wall.

SEL Unfiltered

Do you want to hear more? Check out the rest of our SEL and the Holidays series on our SEL Unfiltered podcast, wherever you stream your podcasts.

Check out other episodes in our SEL and the Holidays series, including Ways to Give, Supporting Students’ Holiday Needs, Holiday Diversity, Holiday Fun, and Holiday Self-Care.

Game of the Week

Every week on SEL Unfiltered we like to bring you a game or activity. You can use the game with your students, in the classroom, or in a small group. This week Kaitlin and I played a round of Thanksgiving Trivia.

Thanksgiving Trivia is a fun way to learn more about Thanksgiving as a class. You can start class with a question or two. Students can answer in groups, as an exit ticket, or by raising their hand to give the answer. Prizes are always fun for Trivia winners! 🙂

Try your hand at Thanksgiving Trivia. What Thanksgiving fruit bounces? Head on over to Love To Know website o find the answer and many more questions you can use for your trivia game.