5 ways to cultivate thankfulness in november

Cultivating gratitude can be challenging at times, especially during the holidays. If you’d like to practice thankfulness at home during the month of November, I have some ideas for you to try!

Gratitude Banner – This is the activity that my family is doing this year. I created a stringed banner with 15 double-sided pennants. Each day in November, we will all write something we’re grateful for on one pennant. The front sides of all the pennants will be written on November 1-15th, then we’ll turn it around and write on the back sides November 16-30th. Creating the banner was fairly easy, but there are inexpensive pennant garlands to order on Amazon!

Thankful Box– We did this several years ago and it was a hit with the family! Use a basket, or cover a shoebox with paper and decorate it with fall stickers or shapes. Prepare a stack of little pieces of paper (or purchase a pack of autumn die-cut paper shapes from Amazon) for everyone to write things they are thankful for each day and drop them in the box or the basket. Open the box or basket on Thanksgiving Day and read them aloud! 

Dinner Conversation Starters– Use this list of conversation starters around the breakfast or dinner table each day of November! If you like, you can print the list and cut it into strips to place in a basket and pull one out each day. The second page of the list has prompts for younger children.

Gratitude Journal – Use this list of journal prompts to write about things you are grateful for every day of November.  This can be done individually or as a family in a communal journal. This is great for homeschooling families to use as a language arts activity for the month! 

Colored Candy Thanksgiving Activity – We have used this activity on Thanksgiving a few times. Buy a bag of multi-colored candy (m-n-m’s work best) and pour them into a brown paper bag. Print the image below and attach it to the bag. As you pass it around the table, each person pulls a candy from the bag. Depending on the color, the person follows the prompt and shares something they are thankful for. 

May your November be full of gratitude leading up to Thanksgiving!

blessings,