November 17, 2025 • 17 mins
Whether you're wrapping up the year in Australia (hi, me too!) or heading into Thanksgiving mode, this one's for the teachers out there who want to keep the vibe high, the connection strong, and the behaviour smooth as the term winds down.
In this episode, I’m giving you a front seat to the actual gratitude-based activities I use with my own students when things start taking an energetic nosedive!
We’re talking:
🧠 sneaky SEL
💬 beautiful conversations
✍️ creative, calming brain breaks
🎨 and some genuinely lovely wall displays if you’re into that
Whether you're in it for the dopamine hit, the classroom calm, or the end-of-year buy-in, these gratitude strategies are your new best friend.
What you’ll learn:
- Why gratitude-based tasks are GOLD for classroom management
- 10 deeper-than-usual conversation starters to use right away
- How to use these prompts for starters, journaling, or brain breaks
- 6 mini-tasks that build regulation and community
- My go-to activity when the class energy is off and I need a circuit-breaker
- How these “fun” tasks are actually classroom structure in disguise
- Why gratitude is secretly one of the best proactive behaviour tools you’ve got
Resources Mentioned:
Have a question, comment, or just want to say hello? Drop us a text!
RESOURCES AND MORE SUPPORT:
- Shop all resources
- Join The Behaviour Club
- My book! It’s Never Just About the Behaviour: A holistic approach to classroom behaviour management
- The Low-Level Behaviour Bootcamp
- Free guide: 'Chats that Create Change'
Connect with me:
- Follow on Instagram @the.unteachables
- Check out my website
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Oh, hi there, teachers.
Welcome to the UnteachablesPodcast.
I'm your host, Claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama, and a big oldbehaviour nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taught tomanage behaviour and classroom
manage has left us playing crowdcontrol, which is not something
(00:23):
I subscribe to because we're notbouncers, we're teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game-changing
strategies, and I mean thethings that we can actually do
and action in our classroomsthat will allow you to lean into
your beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm and dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
Hello, teacher friends.
Welcome back to the UnteachablesPodcast.
It is fabulous to have you hereagain.
If you're a first-time listener,hello, my name's Claire.
And if you're listening, I thinkit's pretty obvious that I am in
(01:05):
fact Australian.
And as an Australian, I don'tcelebrate Thanksgiving like in
other parts of the world.
However, what I do at this timeof year is just increase the
amount of activities that I kindof dot into the school day or
dot into our lessons that justhelp my students stay connected.
It keeps a buy-in high.
It helps to foster thatcommunity, especially in late
(01:28):
November, December, as theyear's winding down.
You know, teaching students withmore complex social, emotional,
and mental health needs meansthat they might not be looking
forward to the break, or theymight miss that community, or
they might be just whatever,right?
Like it's just a nice way toembed a bit of SEL work, keep
things running smoothly.
I specifically do things aroundmindset and gratitude, and I
(01:52):
find that that is golden at thistime of year.
It really helps all of us stayconnected and just wind down in
a really positive way.
However, it is Thanksgivingmonth, and a lot of you out
there do celebrate Thanksgiving.
So I really wanted to dosomething specific for you that
was going to help in yourclassroom.
(02:13):
But if you are listening andlike me, you're an Aussie or a
Kiwi or you know are from acountry that doesn't celebrate
Thanksgiving, please take theseactivities and you can still do
these in your classroom as we gointo those final like stretches
of 2025.
And I can't believe I am sayingthat.
So if that does sound like a bitof you, then stick with me
(02:33):
because this episode I reallywanted to share some of my
favorite activities andquestions and just things that
help keep gratitude andclassroom management front and
center as we move into the endof the year.
You can use these, by the way,as Thanksgiving tasks, starters,
brain breaks, exit tasks, asjust a way to fill in those five
(02:55):
minutes of dead air time or youknow, to kick into something to
get a little bit of buy-in orjust to get a little bit of
engagement if things feel wobblyand you need to get things back
on track for the lesson.
You can use these in whateverway you want.
So get a pen and paper ready andlet's get started.
The first thing that Iabsolutely love using are my
(03:16):
gratitude conversationquestions.
And you can use them forconversations, obviously, like
pair students up, give them acard, and allow them to have
time to discuss the question.
You can use it in a concentriccircle fashion so each person
like has a card and you kind ofmove around.
Uh, you can use them for dailywhole class discussion starters
(03:40):
if you want to do like anattendance question style thing.
You can use them for morningmeetings or reflection time, uh
SEL activities, you can use themas journal prompts or written
reflections.
You can use these in so manydifferent ways.
I have used them before asstarters.
I generally use them as like akind of five-minute brain break
for students to stop whatthey're doing and have a chat
(04:02):
about one question per day as welead into the end of the year.
But you can use them in whateverway you want, in whatever way
suits your class, okay?
So the kind of questions that Ido use, I have these as cards.
Like so I've got like 30, Ithink it's like 32 conversation
cards that I use year-round.
Um, but they also come in like aThanksgiving theme.
(04:24):
So if you're in the BehaviorClub, they're in your resource
area this month, or I'll dropthe link in the show notes.
For any of the resources Imentioned this episode, you can
get them in the show notes orinside of the behavior club, or
you can just jot down thesequestions and use them
immediately in your own way.
That is also fine.
I'll share 10 of the cardquestions that I use.
(04:45):
By the way, I'm not tooting myown horn, but the reason why I
love these questions is becausewhen we talk about gratitude,
very often we kind of just go,what are you grateful for?
What are three things you'rethankful for?
And I really wanted to go deeperthan that, and I wanted to
create questions for studentsthat have them actually thinking
about things they're gratefulfor in a way that's not getting
(05:05):
them to say, Hey, I'm gratefulfor this.
Like just really kind of digdeeper into it.
So here are the questions.
I'm really dragging this out,aren't I?
So the first one, describe amemory you will cherish forever.
Two, what is the best thing youown and why do you love it?
That's one of my students'favorite questions.
Every time I have that questionin the deck, everyone loves it.
(05:28):
The third one, what's somethingin nature that you think is
beautiful?
Fourth, what does your body dothat you're happy about or
you're grateful for or thatyou're thankful for?
The fifth thing, what's yourfavorite way to relax?
Six, what is something that youare glad for every single day?
Seven, how do you make lifebetter and brighter for other
(05:50):
people?
Eight, if you had to give awayall of your memories except one
memory, which one would you keepand why?
Nine, list everything in theclassroom you're grateful for.
I love that one, or list thingsyou're grateful for about
school.
It just challenges them to lookat the little things around,
like they look at a ruler, whyare they grateful for that?
(06:12):
They look at like, you know, thewater bottle or they look at the
clock and they just thinkdifferently about the objects
around them.
And number 10, pick one personin the class.
What is one thing you appreciateabout them?
So those are just 10 of my 32gratitude questions.
Again, you can use them inwhatever way you like.
(06:33):
My favorite way is as a littlejust chat brain break throughout
November and December, where Ipick, usually it's in December
for me, where I every lessonjust say, okay, my the
five-minute break, we're allgonna have one of these
questions and we're gonna talkto the person next to us about
it, or we can get into a circletoday and do it that way, um, or
(06:54):
we can journal about thisquestion.
But generally just choose oneper day and I focus on that one.
The next thing that I love doingis using gratitude mini tasks.
These are perfect to use asstarters, brain breaks,
finishes, journal prompts,pretty much everything I'm
talking about, you can use inthis way depending on your
class.
But these are just five-minutekind of pen-to-paper activities
(07:18):
where students can sit down,complete it, you can talk about
them.
But again, the reason why I lovethese gratitude mini activities
is because it helps them to seewhat they're grateful for and
helps them appreciate things andgets that dopamine boost without
saying, okay, let's write agratitude list again.
It's something that, you know,it's covert.
(07:40):
I don't know if that's the bestkind of way to describe it, but
you know, it's like a covertoperation for gratitude.
It's like getting them to thinkabout what they're grateful for
without saying, what are yougrateful for?
Okay, these are, I think I putsix down here to share with you.
So the first one is waking up toa new life.
Imagine waking up tomorrow andnothing was the same.
You lived in a different placewith different people and had to
(08:03):
start all over again.
What would you miss about yourcurrent life and why?
I love this because we can getso bogged down.
Even when I was creating thesetasks, I did them myself because
I always like to live thelesson.
That is also a very importantthing, like classroom
management-wise, and just forpedagogy, like sitting down and
actually doing the work thatyou're gonna give to your
students and you can really seethe holes in it.
(08:23):
But I always do things when Icreate them.
And I was doing this when I'mlike, oh wow, okay, maybe I need
to like, you know, appreciatecertain things in my life a
little bit more.
The second thing, one simplething.
So look around the room andchoose a random object.
Write a list as long as you canexplain why you're grateful for
having that particular thing inyour life.
(08:43):
Again, I just love this kind oftask because it's allowing us to
kind of see the things that wewould usually take for granted.
So I'm just looking around rightnow and I can see a pillow, and
I'm like, oh my gosh, like Icould write a list as long as a
hundred reasons why I amgrateful to have a pillow, and
(09:04):
that would then bleed into otherthings I'm grateful for, and it
just expands the way that we seethe little things that we
generally would overlook in ourday.
And that's really great.
That's a really great one forthen sharing as a class.
The next one, gratitudesnapshot.
Close your eyes and replay ahappy moment from your life,
(09:24):
like a photo.
Who was there?
Who are you with?
What did you feel?
Write a list of the things inthat memory that you're grateful
for.
The next one is blackout.
This is another one of myfavorites.
Imagine all electricity was cutoff for a week.
What would you miss the most?
Write down as many things as youcan think of.
I'm sure that, you know, all ofus can write a huge list for
(09:45):
that one.
And it just again allows us togo back to the things that we're
grateful for that we reallyaren't always thinking about,
that we might take for granted.
The next thing is gratitudegarden.
Create a gratitude garden, drawflowers on your page with each
flower or petal, something thatyou're grateful for.
Try to make your garden as bigas possible.
(10:07):
I like this one just becauseit's quite creative.
And as somebody who likes todoodle and kind of like sketch
things out, it really does likekind of tap into that with some
students, and it can be such abeautiful, mindful task.
So you can make this longer, youcan make this a longer task than
just five minutes.
I've actually got a resourcethat is Gratitude Garden, and
(10:27):
each student gets like a seriesof flowers that they have to
kind of decorate and fill in,and then we put those flowers up
on the wall in the classroom.
And if you're in the behaviourclub, that activity is in there
and it's in my um Thanksgivingbundle as well.
But it's just such a beautifulway to visually represent the
things that we are grateful forin our class, in our life.
(10:48):
And the last one, what makeslife easier?
Write a list of things that makelife easier for you.
Try to make it as long aspossible.
I love this one because again,like just thinking about the
things that we take for grantedevery single day, like being
able to get into a car and driveto the shops, or being able to
turn a tap on and get water outof the tap and having a cup
(11:11):
that's made that we can drinkout of, having a blanket, like
there are so many things that itjust would start such a
beautiful class discussion aswell.
So use it as a starter.
Students sit there five minutes,do this task, and then you can
spend the rest, like you know,another five minutes as a class,
like kind of just talking aboutthe things that do make our life
easier that we don't usuallythink about, we might overlook.
(11:33):
Okay, that is my mini tasks.
Again, you can use them asstarters, you can use them as
like journal prompts, as a wayto start class discussions.
A really nice way to do that.
Okay, the final activity that Iwanted to share that I
absolutely love doing at thistime of year is my gratitude
plate.
So I have a printout of a plate,and I've got a couple of prompts
(11:58):
there.
And students just write or drawthe things that they're grateful
for on that plate.
I like to frame it as like theiringredients for feeling happy
and grateful and fulfilled.
You can just kind of get a platetemplate like off Canva and
print it out and just getstudents to do it that way.
Or if you would like to grabmine, I've got a free download
(12:21):
that you can use.
You can just go to thedashunteachables.com forward
slash Thanksgiving freebie.
I just wanted to share that onebecause it's a really simple
activity, but you can use themto like you can use it as a
whole lesson, and you can cutthem out and you can pop them on
the wall again, and then it'sjust showing the like as a
representation of the thingsthat the class is grateful for,
(12:43):
really boosting that classcommunity, and just it's just
such a beautiful activity to doas the year draws to a close.
Like it just looks visuallybeautiful.
Students can decorate it, justdraw, they can do whatever, and
I like it because it's reallyexpressive.
So the dashonteachables.comforward slash Thanksgiving
freebie, and you can download itthere.
(13:03):
I also have done it before, likewith a cup, so you can just
print out like a you know, a cupoutline and get students to fill
in what they're grateful forinside of the cup, what fills
their cup, and then again youcan send it home, you can have
it as a display in theclassroom, you can use it as a
way to start discussions betweenstudents.
(13:25):
It's just great, you know, it'sjust a really versatile
activity.
So that's another one that I do.
I do that when I want to spend alittle bit more time on
something, or I actually do usethis if I've had like if I feel
like it's a bit of a dodgy day.
I think you know what I meanwhen I say dodgy day, when the
weather's a bit off, wheneveryone's really unsettled, and
(13:46):
I'm like, oh, okay, this lessonis going to be hard.
I'm gonna use this lesson as mygratitude plate lesson, and
they'll come in and we'll justspend 20 minutes doing their
gratitude plates, and it's soregulating.
It's such a lovely, calmingactivity, and it really does
help me with my classroommanagement coming into the end
of the year.
And this podcast episode, I didmention that it is good for
(14:07):
classroom management andbehavior.
The reason why I say that,number one, because yes, all of
these things can be pen topaper, calming, regulating
activities.
It's really good formindfulness, it's really great
for us being able to do anactivity where they have buy-in
to because it's about them andthey're thinking about
(14:28):
themselves.
And anytime we're gettingstudents to think about them and
their own lives, they have morebuy-in and they're more willing
to do it.
It's just great at this time ofyear to have something in your
toolbox that you know is goingto be a winner with your class,
but also really like beneficialin terms of SEL and community
building and mindfulness and allof those wonderful things that
(14:50):
we can bring for our students aswell.
So that was just a few things Ido during the Thanksgiving
gratitude end of year season.
But if you are looking for moreand all of the resources for
these things, all done for youin the most beautiful way
possible because I am a freakingresourcing machine lately, it's
my favorite thing to do.
Of course, I will just pop allof the links to those in the
(15:12):
show notes for you, or you canjust head straight to the
dashonteachables.shop andeverything will be there.
And if you're in the BehaviorClub, of course, they're just
all included this month.
So please just pop over and findthem in the current month or the
resource hub.
But remember, teachers, whateveryou do when it comes to
resources and activities duringthe Thanksgiving season or any
(15:33):
festive season whatsoever, orleading up to the end of the
year, you can have fun, you cando something that's on theme for
the festive season, but justkeep the structure, keep the
routines.
We spoke a lot about routineslast podcast episode.
So if you didn't listen to thatpodcast episode, I strongly
encourage you to go back andlisten to that because those are
(15:54):
the things that are going tokeep your classroom management
machine working as we near theend of the year.
You can keep all of those thingsand you can just dress them up.
So when I say about all of thoseactivities, you can use them as
a starter activity, as a brainbreak activity, as an exit task
for them to do before they leavethe room.
They're all routines, they'reall things that I would do
(16:17):
anyway in my classroom.
So when I say we're doing astarter, students know already
automatically all of theexpectations around a starter
activity.
When I say we're gonna do abrain break, they know the
expectations.
When I say we're going to dothis as an exit task, again,
it's not just like a reactive,oh, I'm really tired, let's just
(16:37):
do this random task.
It's actually embedded in thebones of what I've already
established within my classroommanagement.
So I think that's a really greattakeaway for everybody.
Do it, do the fun things, justmake sure you keep the
predictability and the structurearound it.
Okay, that's it.
And I will be back next weekwith another dose of classroom
(17:03):
management goodness.
And I hope today's episode justgave you like even just one idea
for one activity that you can dothis week or have up your sleeve
to get a bit of buy in and funor mindfulness or just a
gratitude or community boosthappening in your classroom this
week.
Until next time, keep sprinklingall of that glorious classroom
(17:25):
management magic all over theplace.
Peace out.
Oh, hi there, teachers.
Welcome to the UnteachablesPodcast.
I'm your host, Claire English,and I am just a fellow teacher,
a toddler mama, and a big oldbehaviour nerd on a mission to
demystify and simplify thatlittle thing called classroom
management.
The way we've all been taught tomanage behaviour and classroom
manage has left us playing crowdcontrol, which is not something
(00:23):
I subscribe to because we're notbouncers, we're teachers.
So listen in as I walk youthrough the game-changing
strategies, and I mean thethings that we can actually do
and action in our classroomsthat will allow you to lean into
your beautiful values as acompassionate educator and feel
empowered to run your room witha little more calm and dare I
(00:43):
say it, a lot less chaos.
I will see you in the episode.
Hello, teacher friends.
Welcome back to the UnteachablesPodcast.
It is fabulous to have you hereagain.
If you're a first-time listener,hello, my name's Claire.
And if you're listening, I thinkit's pretty obvious that I am in
(01:05):
fact Australian.
And as an Australian, I don'tcelebrate Thanksgiving like in
other parts of the world.
However, what I do at this timeof year is just increase the
amount of activities that I kindof dot into the school day or
dot into our lessons that justhelp my students stay connected.
It keeps a buy-in high.
It helps to foster thatcommunity, especially in late
(01:28):
November, December, as theyear's winding down.
You know, teaching students withmore complex social, emotional,
and mental health needs meansthat they might not be looking
forward to the break, or theymight miss that community, or
they might be just whatever,right?
Like it's just a nice way toembed a bit of SEL work, keep
things running smoothly.
I specifically do things aroundmindset and gratitude, and I
(01:52):
find that that is golden at thistime of year.
It really helps all of us stayconnected and just wind down in
a really positive way.
However, it is Thanksgivingmonth, and a lot of you out
there do celebrate Thanksgiving.
So I really wanted to dosomething specific for you that
was going to help in yourclassroom.
(02:13):
But if you are listening andlike me, you're an Aussie or a
Kiwi or you know are from acountry that doesn't celebrate
Thanksgiving, please take theseactivities and you can still do
these in your classroom as we gointo those final like stretches
of 2025.
And I can't believe I am sayingthat.
So if that does sound like a bitof you, then stick with me
(02:33):
because this episode I reallywanted to share some of my
favorite activities andquestions and just things that
help keep gratitude andclassroom management front and
center as we move into the endof the year.
You can use these, by the way,as Thanksgiving tasks, starters,
brain breaks, exit tasks, asjust a way to fill in those five
(02:55):
minutes of dead air time or youknow, to kick into something to
get a little bit of buy-in orjust to get a little bit of
engagement if things feel wobblyand you need to get things back
on track for the lesson.
You can use these in whateverway you want.
So get a pen and paper ready andlet's get started.
The first thing that Iabsolutely love using are my
(03:16):
gratitude conversationquestions.
And you can use them forconversations, obviously, like
pair students up, give them acard, and allow them to have
time to discuss the question.
You can use it in a concentriccircle fashion so each person
like has a card and you kind ofmove around.
Uh, you can use them for dailywhole class discussion starters
(03:40):
if you want to do like anattendance question style thing.
You can use them for morningmeetings or reflection time, uh
SEL activities, you can use themas journal prompts or written
reflections.
You can use these in so manydifferent ways.
I have used them before asstarters.
I generally use them as like akind of five-minute brain break
for students to stop whatthey're doing and have a chat
(04:02):
about one question per day as welead into the end of the year.
But you can use them in whateverway you want, in whatever way
suits your class, okay?
So the kind of questions that Ido use, I have these as cards.
Like so I've got like 30, Ithink it's like 32 conversation
cards that I use year-round.
Um, but they also come in like aThanksgiving theme.
(04:24):
So if you're in the BehaviorClub, they're in your resource
area this month, or I'll dropthe link in the show notes.
For any of the resources Imentioned this episode, you can
get them in the show notes orinside of the behavior club, or
you can just jot down thesequestions and use them
immediately in your own way.
That is also fine.
I'll share 10 of the cardquestions that I use.
(04:45):
By the way, I'm not tooting myown horn, but the reason why I
love these questions is becausewhen we talk about gratitude,
very often we kind of just go,what are you grateful for?
What are three things you'rethankful for?
And I really wanted to go deeperthan that, and I wanted to
create questions for studentsthat have them actually thinking
about things they're gratefulfor in a way that's not getting
(05:05):
them to say, Hey, I'm gratefulfor this.
Like just really kind of digdeeper into it.
So here are the questions.
I'm really dragging this out,aren't I?
So the first one, describe amemory you will cherish forever.
Two, what is the best thing youown and why do you love it?
That's one of my students'favorite questions.
Every time I have that questionin the deck, everyone loves it.
(05:28):
The third one, what's somethingin nature that you think is
beautiful?
Fourth, what does your body dothat you're happy about or
you're grateful for or thatyou're thankful for?
The fifth thing, what's yourfavorite way to relax?
Six, what is something that youare glad for every single day?
Seven, how do you make lifebetter and brighter for other
(05:50):
people?
Eight, if you had to give awayall of your memories except one
memory, which one would you keepand why?
Nine, list everything in theclassroom you're grateful for.
I love that one, or list thingsyou're grateful for about
school.
It just challenges them to lookat the little things around,
like they look at a ruler, whyare they grateful for that?
(06:12):
They look at like, you know, thewater bottle or they look at the
clock and they just thinkdifferently about the objects
around them.
And number 10, pick one personin the class.
What is one thing you appreciateabout them?
So those are just 10 of my 32gratitude questions.
Again, you can use them inwhatever way you like.
(06:33):
My favorite way is as a littlejust chat brain break throughout
November and December, where Ipick, usually it's in December
for me, where I every lessonjust say, okay, my the
five-minute break, we're allgonna have one of these
questions and we're gonna talkto the person next to us about
it, or we can get into a circletoday and do it that way, um, or
(06:54):
we can journal about thisquestion.
But generally just choose oneper day and I focus on that one.
The next thing that I love doingis using gratitude mini tasks.
These are perfect to use asstarters, brain breaks,
finishes, journal prompts,pretty much everything I'm
talking about, you can use inthis way depending on your
class.
But these are just five-minutekind of pen-to-paper activities
(07:18):
where students can sit down,complete it, you can talk about
them.
But again, the reason why I lovethese gratitude mini activities
is because it helps them to seewhat they're grateful for and
helps them appreciate things andgets that dopamine boost without
saying, okay, let's write agratitude list again.
It's something that, you know,it's covert.
(07:40):
I don't know if that's the bestkind of way to describe it, but
you know, it's like a covertoperation for gratitude.
It's like getting them to thinkabout what they're grateful for
without saying, what are yougrateful for?
Okay, these are, I think I putsix down here to share with you.
So the first one is waking up toa new life.
Imagine waking up tomorrow andnothing was the same.
You lived in a different placewith different people and had to
(08:03):
start all over again.
What would you miss about yourcurrent life and why?
I love this because we can getso bogged down.
Even when I was creating thesetasks, I did them myself because
I always like to live thelesson.
That is also a very importantthing, like classroom
management-wise, and just forpedagogy, like sitting down and
actually doing the work thatyou're gonna give to your
students and you can really seethe holes in it.
(08:23):
But I always do things when Icreate them.
And I was doing this when I'mlike, oh wow, okay, maybe I need
to like, you know, appreciatecertain things in my life a
little bit more.
The second thing, one simplething.
So look around the room andchoose a random object.
Write a list as long as you canexplain why you're grateful for
having that particular thing inyour life.
(08:43):
Again, I just love this kind oftask because it's allowing us to
kind of see the things that wewould usually take for granted.
So I'm just looking around rightnow and I can see a pillow, and
I'm like, oh my gosh, like Icould write a list as long as a
hundred reasons why I amgrateful to have a pillow, and
(09:04):
that would then bleed into otherthings I'm grateful for, and it
just expands the way that we seethe little things that we
generally would overlook in ourday.
And that's really great.
That's a really great one forthen sharing as a class.
The next one, gratitudesnapshot.
Close your eyes and replay ahappy moment from your life,
(09:24):
like a photo.
Who was there?
Who are you with?
What did you feel?
Write a list of the things inthat memory that you're grateful
for.
The next one is blackout.
This is another one of myfavorites.
Imagine all electricity was cutoff for a week.
What would you miss the most?
Write down as many things as youcan think of.
I'm sure that, you know, all ofus can write a huge list for
(09:45):
that one.
And it just again allows us togo back to the things that we're
grateful for that we reallyaren't always thinking about,
that we might take for granted.
The next thing is gratitudegarden.
Create a gratitude garden, drawflowers on your page with each
flower or petal, something thatyou're grateful for.
Try to make your garden as bigas possible.
(10:07):
I like this one just becauseit's quite creative.
And as somebody who likes todoodle and kind of like sketch
things out, it really does likekind of tap into that with some
students, and it can be such abeautiful, mindful task.
So you can make this longer, youcan make this a longer task than
just five minutes.
I've actually got a resourcethat is Gratitude Garden, and
(10:27):
each student gets like a seriesof flowers that they have to
kind of decorate and fill in,and then we put those flowers up
on the wall in the classroom.
And if you're in the behaviourclub, that activity is in there
and it's in my um Thanksgivingbundle as well.
But it's just such a beautifulway to visually represent the
things that we are grateful forin our class, in our life.
(10:48):
And the last one, what makeslife easier?
Write a list of things that makelife easier for you.
Try to make it as long aspossible.
I love this one because again,like just thinking about the
things that we take for grantedevery single day, like being
able to get into a car and driveto the shops, or being able to
turn a tap on and get water outof the tap and having a cup
(11:11):
that's made that we can drinkout of, having a blanket, like
there are so many things that itjust would start such a
beautiful class discussion aswell.
So use it as a starter.
Students sit there five minutes,do this task, and then you can
spend the rest, like you know,another five minutes as a class,
like kind of just talking aboutthe things that do make our life
easier that we don't usuallythink about, we might overlook.
(11:33):
Okay, that is my mini tasks.
Again, you can use them asstarters, you can use them as
like journal prompts, as a wayto start class discussions.
A really nice way to do that.
Okay, the final activity that Iwanted to share that I
absolutely love doing at thistime of year is my gratitude
plate.
So I have a printout of a plate,and I've got a couple of prompts
(11:58):
there.
And students just write or drawthe things that they're grateful
for on that plate.
I like to frame it as like theiringredients for feeling happy
and grateful and fulfilled.
You can just kind of get a platetemplate like off Canva and
print it out and just getstudents to do it that way.
Or if you would like to grabmine, I've got a free download
(12:21):
that you can use.
You can just go to thedashunteachables.com forward
slash Thanksgiving freebie.
I just wanted to share that onebecause it's a really simple
activity, but you can use themto like you can use it as a
whole lesson, and you can cutthem out and you can pop them on
the wall again, and then it'sjust showing the like as a
representation of the thingsthat the class is grateful for,
(12:43):
really boosting that classcommunity, and just it's just
such a beautiful activity to doas the year draws to a close.
Like it just looks visuallybeautiful.
Students can decorate it, justdraw, they can do whatever, and
I like it because it's reallyexpressive.
So the dashonteachables.comforward slash Thanksgiving
freebie, and you can download itthere.
(13:03):
I also have done it before, likewith a cup, so you can just
print out like a you know, a cupoutline and get students to fill
in what they're grateful forinside of the cup, what fills
their cup, and then again youcan send it home, you can have
it as a display in theclassroom, you can use it as a
way to start discussions betweenstudents.
(13:25):
It's just great, you know, it'sjust a really versatile
activity.
So that's another one that I do.
I do that when I want to spend alittle bit more time on
something, or I actually do usethis if I've had like if I feel
like it's a bit of a dodgy day.
I think you know what I meanwhen I say dodgy day, when the
weather's a bit off, wheneveryone's really unsettled, and
(13:46):
I'm like, oh, okay, this lessonis going to be hard.
I'm gonna use this lesson as mygratitude plate lesson, and
they'll come in and we'll justspend 20 minutes doing their
gratitude plates, and it's soregulating.
It's such a lovely, calmingactivity, and it really does
help me with my classroommanagement coming into the end
of the year.
And this podcast episode, I didmention that it is good for
(14:07):
classroom management andbehavior.
The reason why I say that,number one, because yes, all of
these things can be pen topaper, calming, regulating
activities.
It's really good formindfulness, it's really great
for us being able to do anactivity where they have buy-in
to because it's about them andthey're thinking about
(14:28):
themselves.
And anytime we're gettingstudents to think about them and
their own lives, they have morebuy-in and they're more willing
to do it.
It's just great at this time ofyear to have something in your
toolbox that you know is goingto be a winner with your class,
but also really like beneficialin terms of SEL and community
building and mindfulness and allof those wonderful things that
(14:50):
we can bring for our students aswell.
So that was just a few things Ido during the Thanksgiving
gratitude end of year season.
But if you are looking for moreand all of the resources for
these things, all done for youin the most beautiful way
possible because I am a freakingresourcing machine lately, it's
my favorite thing to do.
Of course, I will just pop allof the links to those in the
(15:12):
show notes for you, or you canjust head straight to the
dashonteachables.shop andeverything will be there.
And if you're in the BehaviorClub, of course, they're just
all included this month.
So please just pop over and findthem in the current month or the
resource hub.
But remember, teachers, whateveryou do when it comes to
resources and activities duringthe Thanksgiving season or any
(15:33):
festive season whatsoever, orleading up to the end of the
year, you can have fun, you cando something that's on theme for
the festive season, but justkeep the structure, keep the
routines.
We spoke a lot about routineslast podcast episode.
So if you didn't listen to thatpodcast episode, I strongly
encourage you to go back andlisten to that because those are
(15:54):
the things that are going tokeep your classroom management
machine working as we near theend of the year.
You can keep all of those thingsand you can just dress them up.
So when I say about all of thoseactivities, you can use them as
a starter activity, as a brainbreak activity, as an exit task
for them to do before they leavethe room.
They're all routines, they'reall things that I would do
(16:17):
anyway in my classroom.
So when I say we're doing astarter, students know already
automatically all of theexpectations around a starter
activity.
When I say we're gonna do abrain break, they know the
expectations.
When I say we're going to dothis as an exit task, again,
it's not just like a reactive,oh, I'm really tired, let's just
(16:37):
do this random task.
It's actually embedded in thebones of what I've already
established within my classroommanagement.
So I think that's a really greattakeaway for everybody.
Do it, do the fun things, justmake sure you keep the
predictability and the structurearound it.
Okay, that's it.
And I will be back next weekwith another dose of classroom
(17:03):
management goodness.
And I hope today's episode justgave you like even just one idea
for one activity that you can dothis week or have up your sleeve
to get a bit of buy in and funor mindfulness or just a
gratitude or community boosthappening in your classroom this
week.
Until next time, keep sprinklingall of that glorious classroom
(17:25):
management magic all over theplace.
Peace out.
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