November is a time for cooler temperatures, turkeys, and thankfulness! Today I’m going to share a simple way to instill an attitude of gratitude in your students this November as they prepare for Thanksgiving. By spending a little time each day focusing on thankfulness, by the end of the month, your students will see that they truly have so much to be thankful for! And, in the mean time, they will be practicing writing skills! Teacher win!
The Thirty Days of Thankfulness Journal is a simple but effective way to have your elementary students practice thankfulness each day in the month of November! This activity is perfect for many different grades because you can simple ask your students to write more or less and draw more or less detailed pictures.
First, let’s talk prep. It’s incredibly minimal! I’ve included two versions. Both are printed or copied back to back. With the first (original version) you cut down the middle, stack the top on the bottom, staple, and you’re done. The second (updated version) is even easier! Cut down the middle, staple the top, staple the bottom, and you have two student books complete! Check out this super short video to see how quick they are to assemble.
Next, let’s take a peek inside! Each day, students write and draw one thing they are thankful for based on a prompt. This makes it so much easier than simple asking them to come up with something they’re thankful for out of thin air.
The prompts vary and are general enough that every student should be able to come up with something to write and draw about. You can have your students write one word, a sentence, or even a couple sentences depending on their ability.
Last, here’s what teachers are saying about this daily journal. It’s perfect for such a wide range of students!
“LOVE!!! When I first asked my students “What are you thankful for” I got the standard answers of “I thankful my mom, my dad, home, etc.”. I love that this project helps them think deeper and gives them different categories of things they can be thankful for. They come up with super cute stuff! Also, I love how easy it was to put together.”
“I love this journal! I teach middle school self-contained special ed and journaling is so hard for them to do without A LOT of help. This unit is awesome because of the sentence stems and space for a picture. I also love that the pages were already organized so all I had to do was print, copy, cut in half, and staple.”
“I used this product for the first time last year and LOVED IT. I had so many parents comment and say how sweet and special it was. I will definitely use again! The prompts are just right for students to fill in easily. In the end it becomes a special booklet that they can keep. Definitely recommend!!”
This is truly one of my favorite resources I’ve ever created because I think teaching thankfulness is so incredibly powerful!
If you’re also looking for a cute bulletin board to encourage thankfulness, I also have you covered! The best part is that, after completing the thirty days of thankfulness for a few days, students can easily come up with something that they are thankful for for this ONE page (that’s right!) turkey craftivity!
This simple craft is easy for students to put together and uses only 1 sheet of paper for the craftivity. It also comes with writing paper so students can elaborate about what they’re thankful for!
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