The Gratitude Game

Cultivating gratitude is an important part of a yoga practice and often children/teens have trouble pin pointing what they are grateful for beyond their toys and electronics. We came up with a game to encourage students to find other parts of their life that they are grateful for. Here's how you play:

1. Before class, get a bag of pompoms from your local craft store. Pull out all of the red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple ones and place in a bag.

2. Start a discussion about gratitude. Meet your students where they are about this topic. It is an abstract concept that children have a hard time wrapping their brain around. Often times with younger children, we would use the term "thankful" as it has more meaning to them.

3. Invite each student to close their eyes and pull out a pompom from the bag. What they express gratitude for will depend on the the color they choose. This can be done in a circle as a group share or it can be done privately as a journal exercise (written or drawn).

This game can be expanded into: art projects with the pompoms; beaded necklaces or bracelets with colored beads; yoga flows based on poses that match what they are grateful for... the sky's the limit!

If you don't have access to pompoms you can use colored scarfs, gem stones, dice from a game (numbered or colored), game spinners, etc.