15 Heartwarming Ways to Teach Gratitude to Your Toddler (That Actually Stick)

Teach your child about gratitude with fun games and art projects!

It’s always important and rewarding to sit down, catch your breath, and think about what you are grateful for.

Of course, young children don’t typically take time for or really know how to reflect and understand what gratitude even is. However, this is a concept that is easily teachable, and fun, too!

Kids generally understand the concept through a series of activities, games, and crafts, that you can integrate into any part of your day or week’s adventures. Pretty soon, your kids will both learn how to and look forward to giving back, showing appreciation, and taking time to recognize all the smiles in their lives.

Here are 15 fun gratitude activities that your toddler will love to do but will also help instill this crucial principle in their life. 

1. Read Books

If you already do storytime or quiet time with your toddler, break out a book that focuses on gratitude. It’s an easy, cozy way to learn about gratitude (with picture reinforcements!)

Here are a few of my favorite books that very eloquently approach and teach the concept of gratitude:

• Gratitude is My Superpower. This book teaches your little one how to appreciate home, friends, and family. Full of sweet illustrations and fun rhymes, this story will really make gratitude come to life. It’s a great book to start the conversation.
• Thankful. With whimsical illustrations, this book focuses on appreciating essential workers along with simple, everyday blessings. Kids will love the rhyming throughout the book, too!
• My Attitude of Gratitude. This book teaches children to be grateful for what they already have. With very bright and bold illustrations, this story is sure to capture your child.
• Grunt the Grizzly Learns to Be Grateful. Promoting a positive attitude, this book encourages children to look on the bright side and see the good that’s all around us.

2. Make a Gratitude Chain

This is a fun activity for toddlers that has a great lesson attached to it. Make a gratitude chain! First, have your little one choose a couple of pieces of colorful paper. Then, using, kid-safe scissors, cut the paper into vertical strips. This will encourage those fine hand muscles.

You can set the pile of cut paper on a desk, next to his/her bed, or even on the breakfast table. At the start of every day, help your child write down one thing he/she is grateful for. Gradually, you can make a chain of each of these strips of paper by wrapping the stip into a ring and attaching it to the previous day’s “grateful strip.” This can easily become part of your daily routine or an isolated Thanksgiving activity!

3. Have Gratitude Talks at Dinner

The more you talk about things you are thankful for, the more your toddler will as well. It’s also a great dinner conversation topic! Make it a tradition to go around the dinner table each night and have everyone share at least one thing they were grateful for about their day.

Note that you may need to help guide your child and ask her about different things that happened during the day to teach them how to be grateful and what that really means. After a while, your little one should be able to do it on their own!

4. Competition

Is your child competitive? If so, start a little friendly competition!

One way to do this is to make it a fun game where your children can try to draw as many things they are grateful for in a certain amount of time. Break out the paper and crayons and go to town! You can set a timer, and whoever can draw the most things they are grateful for wins the game.

Another way to do this is to skip the drawing part and simply say what they are grateful for. Whoever says the most in 5 minutes, wins!

5. Make Thank You Cards

While your toddler can’t write yet, they can still create cards to give to people they are grateful for. This can be a process art where your child gets to create however they like; there is no end result.

Once the card is decorated, write down things your child wants to say in the card, and then send it in the mail! Not only do children love to make cards, but they love to send them. Make it an event and walk to your mailbox or post office to send it.

6. Use a Rainbow Metaphor

Bad days are going to happen. For toddlers, a bad day is when they have to stop playing and take a nap, or when they don’t get a new toy they were eyeing at the store. Use these as opportunities to teach them that just because we are disappointed or claim we are having a “bad day,” it doesn’t mean the entire day needs also to be “bad.”

When something upsets your toddler, have a “rainbow moment.” Talk about how rainy days aren’t always happy all the time. But, when the rain stops, sometimes there is a beautiful rainbow. Simply ask your child what their rainbow moment was for the day. Did they enjoy swinging at their favorite playground? Did they make someone else happy?

If your kiddo doesn’t quite understand, you can guide them more. Maybe even share when you struggle during the day and what good came from it. Eventually, this process will help your child focus more on the good that happens rather than the bad.

7. Bedtime Routine

Include a little gratitude in your bedtime routine!

After you tuck in your toddler, ask them one thing that made them happy today. After they answer, rephrase it to say something like, “Oh, so you were thankful that you got to eat a cookie today. That is great!”

Using the words thankful or grateful will help your child eventually realize and fully understand what they mean, even if they don’t at this time.

8. Gratitude Jar

This is another ongoing, fun activity. Find a jar or even a cup and have your toddler decorate it however they would like. If the jar is see-through, find some colorful paper to wrap it in. If not, get some rocks or beans to fill the jar.

Whenever you or your toddler shares what they are thankful for, have them put a bean into the jar. Have a gratitude party when it gets full!

You can also do strips of paper to write on and let them tell you what they are grateful for. Pop the paper in the jar each day. On a day where you see more frowns than smiles, you can also go through all those moments of gratefulness they’ve had.

9. Thankful for Senses

Toddlers learn best through their senses. This is another fun game you can play with your child any day. First, talk about the senses. What are some examples of what they can taste, touch, smell, hear, and see? Then, you can also ask them what they are grateful for (or what they love/enjoy) that they can smell, hear, taste, etc. Then, gather the items together.

• Things they love to taste
• Things they love to touch
• Things they love to smell
• Sounds they love to hear 
• Things they love to see

10. Gratitude Bingo

Create a fun bingo game that works well with your toddler. For example, you can create a bingo card with various toys and foods your child loves. Then, you can create little pieces of paper with those same toys/foods written on them. Randomly choose a piece of paper and call out each item until they get a bingo! When calling out, use “Are you thankful for…”

Another way to do bingo suited for older toddlers is to make a bingo card where they have to do certain things to get a prize. Some examples include:  

• Tell someone why you are grateful for them.
• Give a compliment.
• Say please and thank you today.
• Make a thank you card.

You will have to help your toddler understand and carry out most of these items. But, they will have so much fun doing this with you! Give a special prize when they complete a row of these actions.

11. Thankful Pumpkin

This is a great fall activity! Get a pumpkin and instead of carving it, write or draw different things your family is thankful for. Some toddlers can’t really carve a pumpkin yet, so they will have more fun coloring their pumpkin anyway!

12. Hide & Seek

Create a fun little hide-and-seek game with your toddler. Begin by hiding something you are grateful for (a family photo, a book, or a favorite snack, etc.). Then, give a prompt hinting at what you hide. For example, “I am grateful for something that rings”. See if your toddler can find the item you are talking about. After they find it, let them hide something, and you go find it.

13. Grateful Photos

What toddler doesn’t like to take pictures? If they have their own little kid camera, great. If not, your phone works well too. Have them go around the house and take pictures of things they are thankful for.

Then, you can put together a fun slideshow where they talk about why they took a picture. This will help them articulate what they are thankful for and why they are thankful. A lesson in gratitude!

14. Drawing or Painting

Art is always the perfect activity for toddlers. There are countless types of artwork you can do, from thankful turkeys, hands, or trees.

However, you can simply let your child draw freely anything they love. This helps them to be creative and work on the process rather than the end result. When they are finished, talk about their painting and naturally talk about gratitude for the artwork.

If they didn’t draw something they are thankful for, you could always share how thankful you are for their beautiful piece of art!

15. Gratitude Walk

Take a nice walk in nature one day and enjoy the beauty around you. During your walk, casually talk about how grateful you are for things that you see, such as:

• The leaves or flowers
• The sunshine or clouds
• Being able to walk outside
• Where you live
• Your house or car
• Birds or animals you hear
• Neighbors you see along the way

You can easily do this every week to enjoy living in the present.

Make Gratitude Part of Every Day!

Learning important principles and manners like gratitude is much better when done through play, especially at the toddler stage. After practicing these activities, don’t be surprised if your toddler shows gratitude beyond “thank yous” and other good manners. You’ll see boosts of happiness! And don’t be discouraged by moments of ungratefulness in the process.

Children are always learning. Use various situations as opportunities to teach your child about gratitude, and you’ll soon find that they really understand and enjoy practicing gratitude on a daily basis.