If you’re looking for an engaging way to get your students writing daily while supporting your students’ Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), give daily gratitude writing a try.
What is Gratitude Writing?
Gratitude writing is simply the practice of spending time each day physically writing down the things we’re grateful for.
Some people use bullet lists, others prefer sketch notes or doodles, and some write in a more diary-style in which they expand on why they’re grateful or what they’re life would be like without the things they’ve listed.
Why Gratitude Writing: The Science of Gratitude
One key piece to the gratitude puzzle involves widening our perspective to acknowledge all of the good we already have in our lives. This acknowledgement is key for safeguarding us from the “more, more, more” mentality that can be so easy to fall into in our daily living.
A second component of gratitude is recognizing that so much of the goodness we have in our lives tends to come from outside ourselves, whether it’s help or support from loved ones, the beauty or comfort nature provides, or programs our community organizes.
Gratitude Supports Social-Emotional Health
According to Forbes, “practicing gratitude allows our brains to release serotonin and dopamine—two “feel good” chemicals that positively impact mood, willpower, and motivation.”
Several studies have found that practicing gratitude regularly, such as in the form of gratitude letters or gratitude journals have major benefits on social and emotional health, including:
- Increased feelings of happiness and satisfaction in life
- Improved symptoms of depression
- Decreased anxiety
- A stronger sense of self-esteem
- Improved relationships
- Better motivation
- Higher rates of resilience when faced with adversity
- And even fewer complaints about physical health
You can read more about these studies here or here.
Daily Gratitude Writing Supports Writing Skills in English Language Arts
In addition to supporting students’ social and emotional well-being, gratitude writing provides opportunities for daily practice with writing and has tons of avenues for practicing specific writing skills.
For example, students can use gratitude writing as a daily warm up, a low-stakes place to apply grammar rules or to try out recently learned vocabulary words. Gratitude writing can invite students to write to a variety of audiences when writing letters of gratitude or to work on developing details, imagery, or figurative language in gratitude journals as they focus on describing just one thing they’re grateful for.
Gratitude writing is also a great way to build free-writing and student choice into your curriculum, two things that often get scrapped when we get pressed for time.
Types of Gratitude Writing in the Classroom
There are several ways to incorporate gratitude writing into your classroom. Keep reading to learn about each way. You can find ready-made materials for all four gratitude writing projects right here.
Gratitude Journals
Gratitude journals are an incredibly easy & low-stakes way to get your students writing daily, similar to bell ringers or daily journals.
The simplest way to get started with gratitude journals is to provide students with a weekly or monthly calendar and invite them to add 3 things they’re grateful for each day.
You can increase complexity as you go by giving them more space to write, so they can start expanding their lists into journal-style writing or you can offer quotes about gratitude for students to respond to or build on.
Letters of Gratitude
Letters of gratitude are another fun and easy way to introduce students to the concept of gratitude. For this activity, students simply choose someone to write a letter of gratitude to and then write the letter.
You (or your students) decide if they will actually give the letters to the recipient or if the letters are more just about practice and expression. Actually sharing the letters tends to build community and meaning into the activity while writing the letters without sending tends to invite longer and more honest expression in the writing.
It can be helpful to help students with generating ideas for who to write letters to. Feel free to borrow this one (and to add on!)
- Teachers
- Coaches
- Parents
- Aunts, uncles, grandparents, and other relatives
- Friends in class
- Friends outside of class
- A friend you haven’t talked to much in the last year
- School nurses, cafeteria, custodial, or admin staff
Gratitude List Poem
This is one of my favorites because it is so incredibly simple and low-stakes, but invites students to get creative, keeps the focus on writing, and turns out SO well every year.
Students make a list of all the things they’re grateful for. They can be serious, tongue-in-cheek, ironic, or (my favorite) a combination of these tones.
Next, students organize the list in an order that feels both creative and strategic. I like to have my students bring in 2-3 printed copies of the poem and literally cut them into pieces. Students reorder them several times before committing to one order for their gratitude list poem.
They can add details or illustrations if they like to help them express their ideas and creativity.
Invite your students to share out their list poems on a Friday for a really fun culmination of the project!
Gratitude One Pager Art Activity
Last, but certainly most popular with students, is the Gratitude One Pager. This art project about gratitude invites students to explore various categories of “things” they’re grateful for.
For more meaningful projects, guide your students to think about experiences, people, and memories they’re grateful for, rather than material things.
Students illustrate their one pagers to help them express the symbolism and details behind what they’re expressing gratitude for. These gratitude projects always turn out amazing, and are one of my favorite projects each year.
Looking for ready-made materials for teaching gratitude writing?
Check out Jen’s bundle of Gratitude Activities, which has ready-to-go materials for teaching Gratitude Writing, including letters of gratitude, gratitude list poems, gratitude journals, and the gratitude one pager mentioned in this post!
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