16Growing up! - Gratitude is everywhere (you only have to look for it!)
The benefits of gratitude
Gratitude has the potential to:
strengthen our awareness of our interdependence with people, animals and the environment
function as an antidote to isolation and loneliness, hurt and resentment
bring the transformative practice of appreciation and warm-heartedness into our daily life
Today we share an activity that encourages children to be curious about how gratitude shows up in their life and around them.
Gratitude Scavenger Hunt
This is an activity which can be played almost anywhere but it works particulary well outside in nature. Set as a challenge it can be used with groups of children or as a family challenge on holiday!
Wherever you are, encourage the children to find
something that makes them happy
something they would like to give to someone else to make them smile
one thing that they love to smell
one thing they enjoy looking at
one thing that is their favourite colour
something they are thankful for in nature
something that could be used to make a gift for someone
something that could be useful to them
They can either write down the list of things to find and take the list with them, or they can look for the first one, return and share it with you and then you tell them the next item on the list.
Invite sharing their choices and what they found with others as much as possible. Maybe they would like to draw the item or take a picture of it and leave it where it can be enjoyed by others, too. When the time is up, everyone can show and explain their choices.
The is activity is part of the resources of our course “16 Guidelines for Children and Teens”.
We also offer the Happy Toolbox for Kids which contains an activity to explore each of the 16 Guidelines with children aged 6 to 11.
