Reflect Together

,

Cultivate a Gratitude Garden

,

Turn gratitude into a beautiful display!

By taking the time to notice and appreciate good things in your life, you'll teach children to cultivate gratitude all year round. Use our gratitude garden printable below, create your own gratitude tree, or dream up your own display!

What you’ll need

  • Our printable template for a Gratitude Garden sign, and for our flower petals.

  • A variety of beautiful paper. Magazines, reused wrapping paper, or newspaper print work, as well as construction and scrapbook paper.

  • Recycled container for your garden – a tin can is perfect, a cracker box with the top half cut off works well too.

  • Markers

  • Glue or tape

  • Buttons, fabric, pipe cleaners, or other embellishments

Instructions

  • Print our templates.

  • Decorate the gratitude fence and glue or tape it to your base.

  • Cut simple petal shapes out of your favorite decorative paper.

  • Cut stems in various lengths (6” to 12”) out of repurposed cereal or pasta boxes.

  • Reflect: what are you grateful for? Write one thing on each petal.

  • Place your garden somewhere nearby, along with any leftover petals and stems. Remember to add to it from time to time, perhaps after family dinner or during a weekend morning over coffee and cocoa.

Reflection

  •  As quickly as you can, list 20 things you are grateful for.

  • List one thing you are grateful for that indulges each of your senses.

  • List something you are grateful for in every season (or month).

  • Why is it so easy to forget the many things we are grateful for when we discover something new that we desperately want?

  • How can we remind ourselves to be satisfied with the good things already in our lives?

  • What if we woke up tomorrow and only had the things we expressed gratitude for today? What should we be sure to add to our gratitude garden?

Resources

Browse the books in Doing Good Together’s picture books to inspire gratitude for your next family favorite!

  • Thank You Letter by Jane Cabrera
    After getting into the spirit of writing thank you notes for her birthday gifts, Grace decided to keep going. Watch what happens as she shares her thank you notes all over town. For anyone who wonders what thankfulness in action looks like, this sweet story will be an inspiration.

  • Thank You, Omu! by Oge Mora
    This story is a bit like Stone Soup in reverse. Omu (pronounced Ah-moo) creates a stew so tasty, that her neighbors can’t help but ask for a bowl. Her gracious giving leaves Omu with an empty pot at dinner time. But don’t worry, her generosity hasn’t gone unnoticed! This beautiful story is full of opportunities to talk about giving, gratitude, and how we can show appreciation for those around us.Take it further

Take it further

Browse the projects in our Big-Hearted Families Tookit!

Disclaimer:  Doing Good Together™ is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

The recommendations we offer are based solely on our mission to empower parents to raise children who care and contribute.

,

Create a DIY Kindness Journal

,

Invite creative reflection about big ideas.

Keeping a compassion-themed journal is a wonderful way to build kindness into busy weeks and shine a spotlight on acts of kindness. Plus, you'll have a place to record family volunteering memories.

Possible Recipients

Keeping a family journal will result in a one-of-a-kind keepsake. These journals also make thoughtful gifts for anyone needing some encouragement.

What You'll Need

Decorate a composition notebook with duct tape. Scatter compassion-themed prompts and quotes throughout it. Then make time periodically to discuss, draw, and write about those kindness prompts as a family.

Create Your Journal

  • Decorate the cover with duct tape, stickers, and markers.

  • Choose your favorite prompts and quotes below. Using your colored pencils, crayons, or markers, artfully add a prompt or quote every few pages throughout your notebook.

  • Print several of our Family Service Memory sheets. Keep them at the back of your journal to use when you complete a service project or act of kindness. After you fill out your worksheet, glue it into your journal.

Write in Your Journal

  • Schedule time each week to create a journal entry.

  • Set a timer for five minutes. Invite each family member to write or draw as much as they can in that time. Follow your ideas wherever they go. After the timer goes off, discuss your ideas.

  • Here are some options for recording your ideas:

    • Take turns being the person to record the main ideas from a family conversation about your prompt.

    • Invite each family member to draw or write about your prompt in your journal. Then take time to discuss those ideas.

    • When you serve together, record your reflections using a Family Service Memory sheet and glue the sheet into your journal.

Big-Hearted Picture Books
everyday kindness books.jpg
Gratitude book list.jpg
cover image conversation cards for every story.jpg
Picture Books that Celebrate Diversity
Books to Help Talk about Bullying
Picture books about feelings.jpg
books for bibliophiles
treasuries.jpg

Kindness-Themed Journal Prompts

Make Lists:

  • Who did you help today? Who helped you?

  • What are you grateful for?

  • What moments of this day brought you a feeling of peace or joy?

  • Who would enjoy receiving a handmade card or handwritten note? Consider choosing people you know personally and/or those you have heard about in the news. Discuss your choices.

  • Make a list of characteristics a good leader should have. Make a list of the characteristics a good citizen should have. How are these lists the same? How are they different?

  • Make a shortlist of things you, as a family, would like to change about your community, state, or country. Then discuss what action you could take to begin working toward some of those changes.

  • Make a list of things that are important about you and each of your family members that others would know just by looking. Make a list of things that are important about you and each of your family members that others would not know just by looking. Which list is longer? Which list feels more important? What does this teach us about other people?

  • Who do you know (friend, neighbor, relative, classmate, anyone!) who may be struggling with loneliness, illness, or grief? Make a list of simple things you could do to help that person.

  • Notice five complimentary things about your family members (or teacher or classmate, etc.).

  • What causes or issues are most important to you? How can you support those causes?

  • What emotions have you experienced in the past twenty-four hours?

Ask Big-Questions

  • Why do you think it's important to spend some of our time giving back to the community?

  • How do you think people feel when you do something kind for them? How do you feel when you've done something kind?

  • Why do you think it’s important that friends, teachers, neighbors, coworkers, and students help each other throughout the day?

  • What does it mean to have courage? Have you ever had to be brave?

  • If you could change one thing in the world, what would you change?

  • If we live in a free country, can we do whatever we want, whenever we want?

  • What does it mean to live in a community with others? What rules (laws) does a society need to run smoothly?

  • Talk about the distinction between courage and recklessness. Give examples of each. Emphasize the need for difficult decisions to be well-considered and the importance of acting on our values rather than our impulses.

  • Together, imagine arriving in a new country without knowing the language or customs. What would it be like to have to leave home quickly and suddenly? What would you miss? How would you feel?

Ask Personal Questions

  • What would life be like if (someone specific, a friend in the carpool, a neighbor, a story from school) didn’t help you out today?

  • How do you make yourself feel better when you feel frustrated or angry at school? What about bored or tired? Excited?

  • If you won a grand prize of $1,000, how would you spend it?

  • If you won $1,000 and could not spend it on yourself or your family, how would you spend it?

  • Describe a moment when you felt proud.

  • Describe a moment you regret what you did or wish you had acted differently.

  • What should we do if we notice something that is unfair at school or in our community?

  • How does it make you feel to get a compliment? To give a compliment?

  • Talk about how making certain choices might result in the loss of popularity and how to navigate that with courage.

Tell Stories

  • If you could have one superpower, what would you choose? Write a brief story about how you use your power to help someone.

  • An older student starts making fun of your friend's new shoes. What do you do or say? What would you be afraid of? What happens next?

  • Write a story, poem, or comic about a child who finds a lost or hurt pet.

  • Create a biography about a kid who invents a tool to save the rainforest, end homelessness, cure an illness, or eliminate loneliness.

  • Write about a disagreement you were involved in recently, but write it from the perspective of the other person.

Find More Prompts:

Browse the projects in our Big-Hearted Families Tookit!

Disclaimer:  Doing Good Together™ is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

The recommendations we offer are based solely on our mission to empower parents to raise children who care and contribute.