Thankful Acrostic Poems

November is all about being thankful, right?  It’s the month we’ve dedicated to remembering everything we appreciate, all the people in our lives we love, and things we think we cannot live without (ahem, pumpkin spice lattes…)

I think the first step to raising kids who are not full of the entitlement attitude that has become so rampant, is teaching them to be thankful.  When they can appreciate what they have and what it took to get it, they are less likely to feel entitled.

My biggest problem with entitlement is that people who feel entitled aren’t happy.  Because when you feel entitled and you aren’t getting what you think you are entitled, you feel unhappy.  I want to raise happy kids. So I have to break the entitlement cycle.

We got the book Bear Says Thanks to start off the discussion.  I have to admit, I love the ‘Bear’ books.  Every single one has been a hit with the boys and includes inclusion, positivity, community, and giving.

Then I wanted to sit down with the boys and really discuss what it means to be thankful.  It’s such a big topic to understand.  I decide to start by showing them that I appreciate them.  They had been asking for cookies for a few days, so I whipped up some Frosted Pumpkin Cookies from Inspired by Charm, a bit of Pumpkin Spice Latte Tea from Teavana (which is some amazing oolong tea…cannot get enough!) and we sat down together to enjoy the deliciousness.

 

This looks like a lovely snack, right??  I sure enjoyed it…

 

Then we talked about what we love and appreciate, things we are glad we have, what we enjoy doing.  And that’s when I introduced thankfulness.  I told them when we are thankful we appreciate the things we already have (I had to be specific because Royal said he was thankful for the ‘Making Machine’ that makes him food and toys…)

I printed off all of the poem templates and we each chose one.  Then we worked together to fill them out.  I wrote down all of the answers because Baloo so often resists writing and I didn’t want our discussion about being thankful to turn into a battle of the wills.
Baloo chose bear, Royal chose mole, and I chose badger.  Logi-Bear also chose mouse, but he just scribbled on the page. 

It look us a bit to fill them all out since we had to be a bit creative with the letters.  But we did have fun thinking about everything we are thankful for and thinking of some silly sentences we could have written down.

 

Go Here to Download the Acrostic Poem Templates

 

Make sure to check out more great activities and ideas to go with books by Karma Wilson from these great bloggers:

Toddler Approved– The Educators’ Spin On It– Rainy Day Mum– 3 Dinosaurs– Learn~Play~Imagine – Crafty Moms Share – Reading Confetti– Inspiration Laboratories – Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas – Kids Yoga Stories – Enchanted Homeschooling Mom– Ready-Set-Read – Boy Mama Teacher Mama – PlayDrMom – Fantastic Fun and Learning – Growing Book by Book– Royal Baloo – The Outlaw Mom® Blog – Kitchen Counter Chronicles – Teach Preschool – Mama Smiles – Coffe Cups and Crayons – Juggling With Kids – Here Come the Girls

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