Team Thanks Gratitude Cards are a fun way to encourage students to show appreciation for each other, and the activity is perfect for the week before Thanksgiving! This activity is designed for students who are seated in teams of three or four. They will pass Team Thanks greeting cards around the group, and will write words of gratitude and appreciation on each card. At the end of the activity, the gratitude cards are returned to their owners. I used this strategy numerous times in my classroom, and my students always loved the activity! If you’d like to try this lesson with your students, you can grab the freebie below from my TpT store.
Prewriting Discussion: What Do We Appreciate About Each Other?
Before you begin the activity, lead a class discussion about gratitude and the importance of expressing gratitude to others. Ask students to help you brainstorm different things they appreciate about their classmates. For example, they might like someone’s sense of humor, their willingness to help, or their creative ideas when working together. Create a long list and leave it on the board during the Team Thanks activity.
Team Thanks Gratitude Cards Directions
When you introduce the Team Thanks activity to your students, tell them that they will be passing greeting cards around the team and writing words of appreciation about their teammates on the cards. Let them know that you expect everyone to write kind comments and that you will be reading what they write.
- Give each student one Team Thanks greeting card. There are several variations, so you can give each student the same card or print them all and randomly distribute them to your students. There’s even a blackline version that students can color themselves.
- Have everyone fold the paper in fourths to make a small side-fold greeting card. Each person writes his or her name on the front page and on all three “To” lines on the inside pages. Then everyone folds their cards so that just one of the inside pages is showing.
- Ask students to pass their card to the left and set a timer for 1 to 2 minutes. While the timer counts down, students write what they appreciate about the person whose name is on the top of the page.
- When finished, ask students to sign their own name at the bottom of what they wrote. This rule keeps students from writing anonymous unkind statements about each other.
- When the timer goes off, ask your students to fold the page back so that no one else can read what they wrote. They should turn the card to the next blank page and then pass it on to the next person.
- Repeat this process until the cards are returned to the original owner. Be sure to allow plenty of time for your students to read all the wonderful things their teammates have said about them!
Tips for Success
- Play soft instrumental music during the activity to set the mood.
- If your students aren’t sure how to write their positive comments, suggest that they begin each statement with the words, “Thank you for…”
- While your students are writing, walk around and peek at their cards to be sure that no one writes something that might hurt another student’s feelings.
- If you are concerned that someone may have written an unkind statement, you can collect the Team Thanks cards before they are returned to their owners and check what your students wrote.
- Sometimes a student will ask what to do if they can’t think of anything nice to write. I usually tell them that if they can’t think of anything nice, they need to stay on the same team with that person for a few more weeks to get to know them better! 🙂
Team Compliments Cards
If you want to repeat this lesson later in the year, use the Team Compliments Cards activity instead. You’ll find a description of this activity and a link to my free Team Compliments Cards at the end of my Promoting Kindness Through Teambuilding post.
