Attitude of Gratitude: teaching thankfulness

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Do your students need to develop an attitude of gratitude?

Are you looking for Thanksgiving speech therapy ideas?

updated 11/2024

November, or any month, is a great month for fostering an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness with gratitude activities for middle and high school students. Keep social skills and social communication interventions relevant and help your student shine with their grateful attitudes!

Check out my social skills lesson plans, which can be found in my subscriber’s library, This prior post on giving compliments might be helpful in teaching students to express gratitude.

Videos for Teaching Gratitude:

ASL Video:

Incorporate some sign language into your Thanksgiving sessions! Sign grateful or thankful and see if students can guess what you are signing!

https://www.signasl.org/sign/grateful

Thank you Video!

Watch the video below of characters in movies, all saying “thank you.”

Saying “thank you” is one way to express gratitude.

MUSIC Video:

This music video is diverse and inspiring and features people from across our world! There is an accompanying activity in my attitude of gratitude packet that explores the lyrics.

MUSIC Video: Grateful, a love song to the world: Empty Hands Music | nimo feat. daniel nahmod

Language of Gratitude

The weeks of or leading up to Thanksgiving are the perfect weeks to explore gratitude with your students in your November speech sessions. Gratitude is an important concept for your students with mental health challenges.

Watch this YouTube video “the science of gratitude” (2:07) to make a case for gratitude! Being grateful is good for our health! The product, Attitude of Gratitude: can be used in a brick and mortar or teletherapy setting and has a language of gratitude section and students can do the “synonyms and antonyms shades of meanings” as a group, or “proverbs and idioms about gratitude” as a group. These are great activities for your students with vocabulary delays or those that need to explore shades of meaning.

They are pictured in action below.

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What is an Attitude of Gratitude?

Establish buy-in with your students by helping them understand the benefits of gratitude. It improves our overall well-being, reduces depression and builds resiliency. View this youtube video from Soul Pancake, (7:13), an experiment in gratitude/the science of happiness.

In the video, participants write about someone they are grateful for and then call them on the phone to read them the letter. Those that were able to EXPRESS their gratitude experienced an increase in happiness.

Play this game, the ABCs of gratitude. Tell students to list things they are grateful for, beginning with “A” and working all the way through the alphabet to “Z.” Don’t be surprised if this exercise gets a little silly— just embrace it and enjoy the laughter with your students.

Expressing the Attitude of Gratitude

Now that your students understand the language of gratitude, use activities from this Attitude of Gratitude: packet to help them embrace or express gratitude. The

“what if we didn’t have?” and

“I feel grateful towards….”

activities are perfect for learning to express gratitude they feel towards important people in their lives. Have students share a person they feel gratitude towards and have the other group members ask one question about this person.

Complaints are Gratitude Busters!

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There’s nothing like a boatload of complaints to ruin possibilities for gratitude…and let’s face it, some teens like to complain! I know I did at that age! In the attitude of gratitude packet, there are activities for flipping complaints into statements of gratitudes.

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Boom Cards: Understanding and Expressing Gratitude

Looking for BOOM cards? This deck does a comprehensive review of gratitude for older students, including how it looks, sounds and feels when gratitude is/isn’t offered.

It include scenarios where students highlight less than grateful statements and flip them into ones of gratitude.

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Books about Gratitude:

Do you have students with reading comprehension or making inferences from text goals? You might like these books about gratitude. Some of the Amazon links are paid links, ie I receive a small commission on eligible links.

Thank you Mr. Falker

Author: Patricia Polacco. Young Trisha struggles with learning to read. In fifth grade, her teacher, Mr. Falker puts an end to the teasing she receives about her reading skills and works with her on improving them. Cut to 30 years later when Trisha expresses her gratitude to Mr. Falker for helping her learn to read.

Thank you Mr. Falker read-aloud

Gift of the Magi

Author: O Henry. Jim and Della sacrifice their most treasured possessions so that the other can fully enjoy his or her special Christmas gift. However, the true gift in the story is the sacrifice that Jim and Della are each willing to make for one another.

Gratitude is my Superpower!

Author: Alicia Ortega. Little Betsy will learn that happiness is made up of simple things in life, both small and big. With the help of the magic stone, she will begin to feel gratitude for her parents, friends, and toys. But what happens when little Betsy forgets to use the magic of her stone? She will realize that the power of gratitude is hidden in her heart.