Thanksgiving SEL Activities for Elementary School
The Thanksgiving season is a great time to focus on social-emotional learning in the classroom through activities that promote gratitude, kindness, and empathy. The ideas I share in this blog post are as sweet as pumpkin pie and will help you cultivate mindfulness practices with your students. You can pair any of these Thanksgiving SEL activities with your social studies or Thanksgiving lessons as an extension activity. The activities can be modified to work for any grade level to support your students’ social emotional learning!
Kindness Activities
Student Kindness Wreaths
One of my favorite Thanksgiving SEL activities during the fall season is a kindness wreath. Here is the free template to do this activity! The activity begins like a game of musical chairs. Have each student write their name on the ribbon (included in the free activity) and place it on their desk. Have the students put their already cut-out leaves in a baggie. Then put on music and have the students walk around the room with their baggie of leaves and a writing utensil. When the music stops, they have to find a desk, pull out one of their leaves, and write something kind about the student whose desk they are at. They will leave the leaf there for the student they wrote it for.
Continue doing as many times as you’d like. When the children return to their desks when the game is over – they will see a beautiful stack of leaves with kind adjectives, memories, etc… about themselves. They will then make this into a wreath; students have so much fun with this part! This is a unique and fun way to spread kindness, compliments, and positivity in your classroom. This is a sweet Thanksgiving craft you can display on your bulletin board, and every wreath will be unique and special to each child. Please note: You can do this activity with a large or small group of students. If the group is smaller, have each student write two leaves about their classmates.
Gratitude Activities
Gratitude Garland
One of my favorite activities to do with my students during the fall season is to create a gratitude garland. You can find this FREE gratitude garland in my TPT shop. This garland is a digital download and includes banner pieces, leaves, and hearts. On each leaf or heart, students will write down one thing they are grateful for.
When each student has written ideas on their leaf, allow them to share their writing with their tablemates. This is a great opportunity for the students to discuss all the things they are thankful for in their lives. Once everyone has had the opportunity to share, you can assemble the garland (or have your students help you). I always enjoy hanging the gratitude garland on the whiteboard, or bulletin board at the front of the classroom so it is a constant reminder that our class has a lot to be grateful for.
Thankful Tree
The Thankful Tree activity is a hands-on way to engage younger learners in practicing gratitude at school. This activity is similar to the gratitude garland and might be ideal if you have a larger space. You can use the leaves from the gratitude garland freebie and have your students write or draw one thing they are grateful for on each leaf. Then allow your students to come to the front of the classroom to share their ideas and put their leaves on the “Thankful Tree”.
Creating the Thankful Tree is very simple. All you need is some brown craft paper or construction paper. Crumple up the paper and staple it to your bulletin board…it may look a bit odd at first, but you will begin to see the tree take shape with the more paper that you add to it. The great thing about this display is that all trees are unique, so there is no need to be perfect when assembling the tree. The students love to watch their classroom tree fill up with all the gratitude leaves. It is a great visual for little learners and provides the opportunity to share and learn about the happenings in our students’ lives.
The Gratitude Garland and the Thankful Tree are fun seasonal ways to cultivate an attitude of gratitude during the Thanksgiving season. However, you can create a regular gratitude practice in the classroom by incorporating it into your morning meetings. On Monday morning, ask your students to share one thing they are grateful for. This mindfulness practice is a great way to start the school week and make it part of your daily routine.
Empathy and Cultural Appreciation Activities
Family Recipes
A fun, family centered Thanksgiving SEL Activity is a family recipe share. For this activity, students will bring a family recipe card to share with the class. if you teach about the first Thanksgiving and/or you know all your students celebrate Thanksgiving, you can have them bring a family Thanksgiving dinner recipe. I like to keep it simple and say “any family recipe”. I have the students answer a few questions about the recipe 1) Who’s recipe is it? 2) When do you eat this dish? 3) What memories do you have surrounding this recipe? I also have them bring in or draw a picture of the dish.
The recipe is a great tool to encourage conversation about family history, culture, and heritage at home. Students come to school eager to share the interesting facts they’ve learned with the class. The children have such a good time sharing their recipe cards, sharing stories about their family members, and learning about each other. This activity is engaging for kids of all ages. I’ve seen this activity carried out with both middle school students and high school students too. The older students can dive deeper into their family history and discuss family and cultural traditions within American society.
Community Service Project
The ultimate SEL activity I’d like to share is a whole-class community service project! Regardless of where your service project takes place, your students will gain experience helping others in their community. This project could be a field trip that your class takes to a location of need in your community. This field trip would require preparation and planning, however, it would be such a wonderful way to wrap up an SEL unit on gratitude, kindness, and empathy.
Some examples of locations to consider in your community include your local food pantry, a community garden, and your public library. If you are short on time and can’t plan a field trip, you can connect with a teacher in a younger grade. Perhaps your students could “volunteer” their time to read to kindergarteners or help first graders with a project.
After your students volunteer in their community, allow time for the students to discuss their experiences with each other. Through discussions, they will share their thoughts and feelings about the experience. Below I have included some questions to guide their discussions. Also, please feel free to modify these questions to fit your students’ needs. Remember, these are meant to inspire you.
– How did you feel while helping others?
– Did you learn anything new about yourself?
– Did you learn anything new about your community?
– What personal skills, gifts, or talents did you use during your volunteer work?
– What are some other ways you can help your community?
(If you’re looking for a way to help students synthesize this experience, you can ask them to write answers to these questions in their journals before their discussions.)
Thanksgiving SEL Activities
I hope this gave you some ideas for Thanksgiving SEL activities to use with your elementary students during the holiday season! I’ve never had an SEL curriculum, so I was always searching the web for freebies and creative ideas. If that’s you, don’t worry! I’ve got your back! I shared many SEL ideas above! Even though the ideas I outlined are Thanksgiving-themed, they can be used throughout November. Don’t forget to grab your gratitude garland and kindness wreath. These Thanksgiving classroom activities are included in your instant download, for free. It is a simple way to decorate and incorporate SEL into your classroom this season! I’m wishing you a happy Thanksgiving! If you found this helpful and used any of these fun Thanksgiving SEL activities, I’d love to see them! Please tag me on social media @bloomwithbridgette.
Check out the complete Thanksgiving Classroom decor bundle (pictured above). It has everything you need to decorate and manage your classroom this fall! From editable Google Slides templates with timers, bulletin boards, and posters, to classroom newsletters – this bundle has it all in one cohesive, beautiful theme! You can save big with the bundle! You can check it out in greater detail here. As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
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