What is gratitude:

Gratitude opens your heart and carries the urge to give back— to do something good in return, either for the person who helped you or for someone else.

From Barbara Fredrickson’s Positivity

Some ideas for Cultivating Gratitude in students:

1) Keep a gratitude journal:

Key here is not to just go throught the motions, as the Greater Good’s Jason Marsh points out:

• Don’t just go through the motions. Research by psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky and others suggests that journaling is more effective if you first make the conscious decision to become happier and more grateful. “Motivation to become happier plays a role in the efficacy of journaling,” says Emmons.
• Go for depth over breadth. Elaborating in detail about a particular thing for which you’re grateful carries more benefits than a superficial list of many things.
• Get personal. Focusing on people to whom you are grateful has more of an impact than focusing on things for which you are grateful.
• Try subtraction, not just addition. One effective way of stimulating gratitude is to reflect on what your life would be like without certain blessings, rather than just tallying up all those good things.
• Savor surprises. Try to record events that were unexpected or surprising, as these tend to elicit stronger levels of gratitude.
• Don’t overdo it. Writing occasionally (once or twice per week) is more beneficial than daily journaling. In fact, one study by Lyubomirsky and her colleagues found that people who wrote in their gratitude journals once a week for six weeks reported boosts in happiness afterward; people who wrote three times per week didn’t. “We adapt to positive events quickly, especially if we constantly focus on them,” says Emmons. “It seems counterintuitive, but it is how the mind works.”

There is even an iphone app

Or a free one

Building Gratitude, especially sincere gratitdue takes a mindful effort. 

A variation we use a lot in small groups is the three good things/three blessings activity as Described by Martin Seligman:

You can try a guided meditation on Gratitude like this one or this one from UCLA or hit two postive emotions in one Expression of Gratitude & Love Meditation 

Other activites you might try include

Other activities you might try in the classrom include

• Gratitude Surprise Sticky Notes. Give each student one or more sticky notes to write something they’re grateful for about another person in the school community. Then have the students “deliver” the sticky notes by placing them where the person will see it, e.g., a locker, a phone, a cleaning cart. Source: Greater good
• Gratitude Quotes. Give students their own gratitude quote (here’s a great list of quotes) and have them reflect upon and write about what their quote means to them. Source: Greater good
• Try Jeffrey Froh and Giacomo Bono’s gratitude curriculum to deepen students’ understanding of gratitude.
• Thanksgiving Time Capsule from PBS Parents
• DIY Thankful Board from U Create
• Make a collage using pictures of things you are grateful for. Let your child have the camera and take photos of all things they are grateful for.  You may like to print out the pictures and then make a collage, or create a collage online (like inPicMonkey) and then print it for them.  Most kids love the opportunity to use a camera! Source: Momentsaday

• Play the “What Would You Feel Without It” Game. This game can be done any time during the day, the more silly mood you are in probably the better.  Simply ask the kids what would they feel like without various items.  They will be surprised how different life would be without some of the things they consider “normal” to have.  You may like to begin a discussion about how other people live without such items, if it is age appropriate, to help them remember to appreciate what is sometimes taken for granted in their life. Source: Momentsaday