Gratitude or thankfulness is a skill that can be learned through repetitive behavior. We need to model grateful behavior with our children each day to help them develop a grateful attitude. This free gratitude activity for kids is an easy way to practice thankfulness with your kids.
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Why Gratitude is Important
Gratitude is closely tied to happiness and satisfaction. Research has shown that grateful people are more likely to be happy, positive, hopeful and physically energetic. They also tend to be more spiritual, more forgiving, and more empathetic. In addition, thankful people tend to be less depressed, envious and neurotic.
Verbally Expressing Thankfulness
Simple activities that model gratitude can help children make it a habit for life. One easy way to create this habit is to set aside a certain time of day to verbally express and reflect on what you are grateful for in life. Children need to hear adults expressing gratitude.
The Thanksgiving season is a great time to begin practicing this habit of expressing gratitude with your family. Set aside a few minutes each day to express thanks out loud. Our family does this at our evening meal.
Gratitude Activity for Kids
Finding an easy gratitude activity for kids can make establishing the habit of thankfulness easier on parents. A list of questions can spur the minds of children to get them thinking about gratitude in a bigger way, while a game can keep them interested in the conversation.
This can be as simple as:
- an easy printable dry erase board that asks kids to reflect and physically write down what they are thankful for
- a beautiful fabric scrap thankfulness garland that can be used as both an activity and a decoration
- a fun gratitude bowl that is easy for kids of all ages and encourages discussions
- baking thank you cookies with your family while expressing gratitude
Free Printable Cootie Catchers
I have created a free printable thankfulness activity that kids can fold and use to discuss gratitude. It’s a simple paper fortune-teller (sometimes called a “cootie catcher”) that is popular with elementary school students.
How to Fold Cootie Catchers for Thanksgiving
The cootie catcher features fun fall designs and 16 gratitude questions that will encourage family discussions.
Download the free printable cootie catcher and the cootie catcher folding instructions (in the free printables library, click on the “download” link under the cootie catcher picture, save the PDF file to your computer, and then print) then follow the simple instructions to make your own gratitude game.
Tip: I print my fortune tellers on matte photo paper , it is thicker than copy paper and prints with extra bright colors. This makes a sturdy paper cootie catcher that can stand up to littlle hands!
More Paper Crafts for Kids
I’ve designed several other holiday cootie catchers for kids. Check out these fun (and free) printables:
- This adorable Thanksgiving Joke Teller keep kids busy while you cook!
- Christmas Kindness Cootie Catchers suggest kind deeds kids can accomplish.
- New Years Eve Fortune Tellers that “predict” your upcoming year.
- Valentine Joke Tellers that are a great non-candy classroom treat.
- St Patrick’s Day Joke Tellers are a fun lunchbox surprise or after school activity.
- Halloween Joke Tellers are a fun lunch box surprise or after school treat.
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Tip: Be sure to check out my Thankfulness Dry Erase Boards for kids. It is a fun gratitude activity you can print and also use as a Thanksgiving decoration.
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I love this idea! My daughter went through a huge “cootie catcher” phase a couple years ago where I would find stacks of them all over her bedroom. I think the idea to add the Thanks-related conversation questions is a fantastic twist. I fully intend to print out a few of these and take them to Thanksgiving dinner to keep the kiddos entertained – and maybe the adults too!
Thanks for sharing with us at the #HomeMattersParty link party.
Thanks Alayna! I am not sure why cootie catchers are so captivating for kids but they are so enthralled. Hope your family enjoys the Thanksgiving version!
Hello! I am unable to download the Gratitude Cootie Catcher. Is there a way you could email me the pdf file? Thanks! I think this is an adorable idea!
I sent it, Alexa! Hope you enjoy!
I saw this on Pinterest and have pinned it.I love this idea and think that your designs are so cute! I’m going to print some up to use with my grandkids on Thanksgiving Day.
Thanks Nina!
Thank you.
thank you for allowing me to download your thankful Cootie Catcher ! You are very talented !
Thanks Carla! Hope you enjoy!
Wow, Bren! Thanks for the craft idea AND the lesson.
OMG I love the cootie catcher idea! My son loves them so I could not ask for a better little craft on Thanksgiving! Much thanks from our family!
What a cute Thanksgiving cootie catcher. I was not able to download it.
I’m sorry you’re having problems accessing the printables! To get to the free printable you need to visit https://brendid.com/free-printables/, if a pop up appears simply enter your email address as your password and then you will be able to scroll down to find the cootie catchers. (You will not be resubscribed if you reenter your email, the program will only collect that information once and delete any duplicates.) The printable is on the page https://brendid.com/free-printables. Hope this helps! -Bren
This is so cute! My oldest got in the car yesterday with a homemade cootie catcher from school. I have this one printed and ready to celebrate the first day of November with my kids. I shared your link on my Facebook page.
Thanks, Karis! I hope your kids love the cootie catcher.
hi I have been trying to download the cootie catcher and can not get it to download. I would love to use this at my sons harvest party. Thank You!
Tabatha, to get to the free printable you need to visit https://brendid.com/free-printables, a pop up will appear, enter your email address, and then you will be able to scroll down to find the cootie catchers.
HI. First of all THANK YOU, this is a great tool to use in my classroom this week! Do you have/ can you share a blank Fortune Teller template? I would love to be able to customize one with topics specific to what we are learning about in my classroom.
Thanks again.
I don’t have a blank template, but you can easily make your own by using an 8×8 sheet of paper and folding them into the cootie catcher shape then fill out the spaces however you desire. You can get the folding directions in my free printables library.
I cannot download this is there anyway you can send it to me?
Miranda, the printable is available in the free printables library. You need to have cookies enabled in your browser to be able to access the library. If you are still having problems please send an email to hello@brendid.com and I can send you a link.
I can’t figure out how to download this! Your other pages that include cootie catcher templates have a clickable text link, but this one the text is simply bold and not a link. I tried going to your library of downloads and I’m not having much luck there either.
Please help! Any way you could email me the pdf??
Jennifer, you need to go to the free printable library (https://brendid.com/free-printables/) then enter you email address and you will be able to scroll down to the cootie catcher picture and download the PDF file. You need to have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to access the file. If you are still having trouble please email me at hello@brendid.com and I can send you a link. The file is too big to email.