A Simple Gratitude Lesson With A Nature Scavenger Hunt

Would you believe me if I told you there is a simple way to significantly impact our children and our future by teaching one thing?  I think if we can teach them this one gratitude lesson we can create world changers!

How A Gratitude Lesson Helped Me Teach In 2020

It is November 2020; I don’t know about you, but I feel like adulting right now is hard.  I feel like 2020 is kicking our butts. Let’s be honest, the only place it is not beating me down is when I get my kids outdoor learning.  I always feel like as soon as I can get outside to learn, I can breathe, and everything is better. 

I teach a combination of virtual kindergarten and outdoor learning kindergarten.  We spend ½ our day inside and the other outside.  Inside, we are wearing masks, socially distanced, and continuously reminding a room full of kindergarteners to mask up and social distance! It is enough to make anyone feel bonkers.  I make it a point each day to make the best of it. We still laugh, we always play, and we never stop learning, but it is exhausting. Am I alone here?

The second half of the day outside is usually pretty darn magical. First I do want to be real, I won’t count that time a couple of kids peed their pants instead of climbing down the tree to go to the restroom; that was fun. Well there was that time, I lost my wedding ring in the pond when I was feeding the fish. But overall, everyone feels better outside. If you want to learn more about how to get your class outside learning, check out my Free video series Outdoor Learning Blueprint. So, we had been rocking kindergarten for about 75 days before we had to all go to E-Learning. I am grateful we lasted this long. 

Gratitude Practice

My secret for staying sane is focusing on gratitude, which is not an easy skill to learn. I genuinely believe we need to train our brains to find gratitude in all things. It is a daily gratitude lesson. I start and end my day with a quick gratitude list. This gratitude lesson teaches me to be grateful for the small things and to be on the lookout for gratitude during my day. The practice of looking for gratitude in small everyday moments is powerful. When I practice this, it winds me down from my day and pumps me up to tackle my day.  This daily gratitude lesson is what has helped me survive 2020 with a smile on my face and my sanity. 

Daily Gratitude Lesson

I always teach my students to be grateful for all things. The easiest is the sun on our cheeks when it is cold or the shade from the tree when the sun is too hot. If we can teach our students to be grateful for things in nature, big or small, this can change our future world.  So, I am going to share with you our gratitude lesson, the Gratitude Adventure Hunt.

Anyone can do this, whether it is with your kids, your significant other, or yourself.  You can go on a gratitude hunt and thank nature! Here is a quick outdoor learning activity that you can do any day! Outdoor Scavenger Hunt- Gratitude In Nature

1. Bundle up and head outside.
2. Look for things big and small that you can thank.
3. Model aloud things you are grateful for or what you want to thank. My students know if it is sunny, I will look for the sun and say, “Thank you sun, you feel so good on my face!” I have done it enough that quite a few of my students have started doing it independently, which makes my heart very happy!
4. Challenge your student or child to find things among nature to thank and practice this gratitude lesson daily.
5. Extend and build on by making a scavenger hunt for things for them to thank or have the children write down or draw pictures and add to a gratitude journal.

Gratitude Lesson For Kids

I created a free nature scavenger hunt printable for you to give this gratitude lesson a try! A gratitude nature scavenger hunt, can give your students a purpose for their nature walks and help their caregivers during E-Learning.  You can do this without an actual checklist, make a checklist, or you can head over to my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, Teaching Comes Alive Outside, and grab your free nature scavenger hunt printable. 

Here is a great place to start with my outdoor scavenger hunt terms I use to explain what I start with when teaching my gratitude lessons. 

• Sun-“Thank you for keeping us warm when it is cold, and thanks for helping with photosynthesis.”
• Clouds- “Thanks for providing us shade and for creating fun cloud characters.”
• Seeds- “Thanks for growing into plants and trees.”
• Birds-Thank you, Turkey Vultures, for being the clean-up crew of birds that clean up deceased animals.”
• Trees- “Thanks for giving us shade, cleaning our air, and providing the material to make our paper.”
• Leaves- “Thanks for the beautiful colors, making food for the tree, and falling and adding nutrients to the earth.”
• Logs- “Thanks for making habitat for bugs and creatures.”
• Animals- “Thank you for planting seeds for trees to grow.”
• In other seasons you have flowers, bugs, water, etc. The list is endless!

If you want to learn more about how I incorporate this gratitude lesson with my class and kids, you can listen to my podcast, Teaching Comes Alive Outside, A Simple Way to teach a gratitude lesson with nature and outdoor learning.

It is important to get centered in gratitude and not just the month of November.  Let’s teach the next generation to look for the good and practice the gratitude lesson of looking for the small things and the big things.

Click here to grab your copy of the free nature scavenger hunt printable, Gratitude Adventure Hunt. Check out more gratitude lesson resources here: Thank You Nature Foldable Book, or the Thank You Nature Digital Emergent Reader Book, head over to my  Teachers Pay Teachers Store, Teaching Comes Alive Outside to grab your copies.

Stay well and get outside,

    Elizabeth