6 Easy Ways to Teach Kids to Show Gratitude this Easter
Easter is a time of celebration and joy where we experience excitement and warm feelings that make us feel good. When we feel happy, it's easy to see the positives and be thankful for the good things in life.
Teachers can use the excitement of Easter as a teaching moment to encourage kids to acknowledge the good things and show their gratitude. It's a great time to teach students that being thankful and expressing gratitude is a key component for nurturing relationships and improving happiness.
Whether relationships are established and strong or still growing, they should always be nurtured and never taken for granted. This means students must learn to acknowledge, support, and bolster others. It means treating others the way they want to be treated.
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Relationship lessons are an important part of a valuable set of social-emotional skills that enhance wellbeing, and this is where kindness and gratitude come in. These positive values are a powerful force that can have a profound effect on, well, everything! Kids need to learn how to use them. That means appreciating the positive character traits and actions of people who are important to them. It means showing that they care about others by making them feel good about themselves. It's about being able to show gratitude and be kind to foster meaningful relationships.
Learning to be grateful naturally involves showing kindness towards oneself and others. That’s why the two go hand in hand. These skills nurture emotional intelligence and add to a wellbeing toolbox students will access throughout life.
Teaching kids to be kind and thankful is also an effective and no-cost way to manage behavior and improve classroom community.
Expressing gratitude is associated with a host of mental and physical benefits. Studies have shown that feeling thankful can improve sleep, mood and immunity. Gratitude can decrease depression, anxiety, difficulties with chronic pain and risk of disease.
6 simple ways to teach kids to be grateful:
1. What is gratitude and why is it important to be grateful?
I've learned never to take it for granted that kids understand a concept. That's why I feel it's important to start your teaching about gratitude with a conversation to make sure everyone's on the same page.
Here are some questions you might like to ask your class:
In positive psychology research, gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.
It's interesting to analyze answers and get a show of hands to see if people agree or have a different opinion. You can also ask students to point out examples of gratitude in the classroom. This can be the way they show appreciation or how they've noticed their classmates show they are grateful.
Challenge them to be more mindful of feeling thankful and taking a moment to actually notice how they feel about the help or things they receive.
2. Read books about gratitude
Books can be really useful teaching tools. They can help visual learners to grasp the concept of gratitude and encourage conversations about why gratitude is so powerful and how to be grateful.
There are a few terrific books (affiliate links) you might like to consider reading during your morning meeting.
3. Show kids what it means to be grateful
When they see their teacher praise someone and express their appreciation for good work or behavior, students are encouraged to follow suit. Teachers can promote an attitude of gratitude by helping kids see the positive attributes of their classmates or little things that contribute to having a good day.
Teachers can routinely point out things they are grateful for during class. They can ask students to share something they're thankful for during morning meetings.
Another fun thing is a class gratitude jar or personal gratitude journal.
Journalling can be as simple as writing a few lines about what kids are grateful for that day or you can ask them to focus on their relationships and the positive behavior of their peers. Ask them to write down 3 acts of kindness they observed, 3 ways someone made them feel good, or something they're happy they achieved.
In an experimental comparison, those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events
4. Teach kids to give compliments
When students complement one another, it can help build positive relationships in your classroom. Feeling appreciated and valued can boost confidence and self-esteem to encourage more positive interactions. This can have a positive effect on academic performance as well as social, emotional, and physical wellbeing.
- How to give a compliment
Be specific and genuine when praising.
Rather than saying that it was a "great job", go into detail about what students did well and what was admirable about what they did or the way they did it. Make sure the praise comes across as sincere, heartfelt, and not forced.
Research shows that gratitude is linked with feelings of reward, improved sleep, and decreased depression and anxiety. There are measurable benefits to mental health and interpersonal relationships when humans feel gratitude.
- Be timely and respectful
Giving compliments as soon as possible after the event or behavior takes place. This ensures the recipient feels recognized and appreciated in the moment. Praise should be respectful and not be centered around someone’s appearance or clothing.
Compliments can be verbal, written, or given through gestures such as a smile or thumbs-up.
5. Make this Easter card to compliment someone
Looking for an elementary easter craft? This compliments card activity will keep students engaged as they consider the positive attributes of classmates and loved ones. Kids choose someone to make a card for and add complimentary words to Easter eggs they glue on coloring pages with a bunny, chick or Easter basket.
They can even use the clipart to make their own designs. This is a fabulous activity for helping students identify positive character traits and get in the habit of looking for them.
6. Participate in our FREE kindness challenge
Make giving compliments fun by participating in our kindness challenge! It gives students such a buzz pretending to be a secret agent as they sneak off to the library to hide compliment bookmarks for unsuspecting schoolmates to find.
This activity is a hit with all ages. They'll be begging you to do it again and again!
You will notice that most of these activities are not Easter themed. Though you can feed off the buzz of Easter to encourage students to reflect on what and who they are thankful for, gratitude should be practiced every day.
Use these ideas to get your students in the habit of being thankful and help cement an attitude of gratitude for life!