Thankful

Name: Thankful
Author: Eileen Spinelli

A story that explores gratitude and opens a conversation with your child.

★★★★★ Loved by families

Read the Guiding Questions Find this book →

♥ This book teaches: Gratitude. noticing and appreciating what is already good.

Before, During & After Reading

Guiding Questions for Parents.

Definition: Someone who is grateful is thankful for people, nature, and things. Stewardship means taking good care of what we’ve been given. In short: Thankful for every blessing, big or small. Summary: This book is all about gratitudes. The illustrations are of siblings who dramatize people who enjoy their work.The siblings put on costumes and act out jobs like waitressing and gardening, and activities like traveling and dancing. In each case, there is a rhyming script of gratitude for the joy experienced, such as,“The chef is thankful for plates licked clean,” and “the tailor is thankful for her sewing machine.” It’s a fun book that illustrates children’s playfulness and creatively suggests some of the many ways to experience gratitude. Lesson Objectives:

Students will be more inclined to recognize, and hopefully experience, the positive side of work and activities.
Teachers can guide students to talk about different kinds of occupations, and the good aspects of each one.

Guiding Questions:

The children in this story like to put on costumes and pretend to be adults doing different kinds of work. Do you like to play like this?
The fireman is thankful for…(Fill in the blank)
The poet is thankful for…(Fill in the blank)
The doctor is thankful for…(Fill in the blank)
The travelers are thankful for…(Fill in the blank)
What is a chef and what is the chef thankful for?
What is a mayor and what is the mayor thankful for?
Are you thankful when someone reads you a story? Share about your favorite story - why do you like it?
Share about three things for which you are thankful.
The boy made a card for his mom to show his gratitude. Think about what you could do to show your gratitude to someone you love and do it!

🌿 Virtue Connection: Gratitude means noticing and appreciating what is already good.

About the Story.

This guide is part of the Values & Virtues library, a free collection of 400+ book guides and activities organized around 12 core virtues for children from pre-K to 6th grade. Each guide includes Guiding Questions designed to open a real conversation with your child in 10 minutes or less.