Activities for Celebrating Gratitude

Thanksgiving presents an excellent opportunity to engage students in activities that promote emotional well-being, cultural understanding, and a sense of belonging. Here are some creative and impactful Thanksgiving-themed activities that align with the ethical and educational responsibilities of school counselors.

Gratitude Journals

Encouraging students to reflect on what they are grateful for is a simple yet powerful exercise. Distribute small journals or worksheets where students can list things they appreciate in their lives. Consider these approaches:

• Daily Gratitude: Ask students to write one thing they are thankful for each day leading up to Thanksgiving.
• Gratitude Prompts: Provide specific prompts, such as "Write about a person who has made a difference in your life" or "Describe a moment when you felt happy this year."
• Group Sharing: Create a safe space for students to share their reflections, if they’re comfortable, fostering community and mutual appreciation.  (This is also a good time to approach your administration about creating that safe space - about 15 minutes at the beginning of the day - if your school doesn't already have that in the schedule.)

Cultural Appreciation Activities

Thanksgiving offers an opportunity to celebrate diversity and teach cultural awareness. Highlight the various ways gratitude and harvest celebrations are observed across cultures:

• Classroom Presentations: Invite students to research and present on global gratitude traditions, such as the Korean Chuseok or the Indian Pongal.
• Cultural Storytelling: Share age-appropriate stories or folktales about gratitude and harvest from different cultures.
• Multicultural Display: Collaborate with teachers to create a bulletin board showcasing how gratitude is expressed around the world.

Gratitude Trees

A gratitude tree is a visual and interactive way to engage students in expressing thanks. Here's how to set one up:

• Materials: Use a paper tree outline on a bulletin board or a potted tree with paper leaves. (Or, simply - branches brought in from the outside and staged as a tree.)
• Student Participation: Ask students to write something they’re thankful for on a leaf and attach it to the tree.
• Classroom Integration: Collaborate with teachers to make it a class project, or host it as a school-wide initiative.

Acts of Kindness Campaign

Encourage students to give back to their community during the Thanksgiving season. Organize activities that emphasize kindness and compassion:

• Kindness Challenges: Create a list of simple acts of kindness, such as helping a classmate or writing a thank-you note to a teacher.
• Service Projects: Partner with local organizations for food drives, coat collections, or other community service efforts.
• Peer Recognition: Establish a system where students can write anonymous thank-you notes to peers or staff members, which are later distributed.

Coping with Holiday Stress Workshops

For some students, Thanksgiving may bring stress, grief, or anxiety due to family challenges or financial hardships. Offer workshops to address these emotions:

• Stress Management Tips: Teach relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing or mindfulness exercises.
• Grief Support: Provide a safe space for students coping with loss to share their feelings and learn healthy coping strategies.
• Resource Sharing: Connect families with local food banks, counseling services, or holiday assistance programs.

Gratitude Art Projects

Art is a therapeutic medium for expressing emotions and fostering gratitude. Organize creative activities that allow students to explore what they’re thankful for:

• Thankful Collages: Provide magazines, markers, and glue for students to create collages that represent things they are grateful for.
• Gratitude Murals: Work with students to design a large mural depicting scenes of thankfulness, which can be displayed in the school.
• Letter Writing: Encourage students to write and decorate thank-you letters for important people in their lives.

Thanksgiving-Themed Group Counseling Activities

For small counseling groups, Thanksgiving can serve as a theme for building interpersonal skills and emotional awareness:

• Gratitude Circle: Have each student share something they’re thankful for and explain why.
• Team-Building Games: Play activities like "Gratitude Bingo" or "Pass the Thanks," where students pass around a ball and say something kind about the next person.
• Goal Setting: Use the season of reflection to help students set positive goals for the remainder of the school year.

Conclusion

Thanksgiving provides school counselors with a unique platform to engage students in meaningful activities that foster gratitude, cultural awareness, and community spirit. By incorporating these activities into your school counseling program, you can help students develop a stronger sense of connection, empathy, and emotional resilience during the holiday season and beyond.