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
Create Gratitude Kits and share appreciation on the go.
Decorate Big-Hearted Awards for unsung community heroes.
Revisit this popular DGT article, Active Gratitude: Family Traditions for Kinder, Less Entitled, More Generous Kids.
Browse the projects in our Big-Hearted Families Tookit!
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The recommendations we offer are based solely on our mission to empower parents to raise children who care and contribute.