An Awesome (and easy) Thanksgiving Tradition To Start With Your Family This Year

A friend of mine — Eileen from Little Acorn Learning — posted this picture of her Thanksgiving table last year:

I thought those cards were such a nice idea. What a great way to encourage interaction and kindness around the Thanksgiving table!

This year I really wanted to do something similar.

So I made some templates to use, and I decided I’d ask the kids if they wanted to make them.

They were super excited, and jumped right to work this weekend.

I printed out the templates, and I told them they could do whatever they wanted.

They cut out some construction paper, glued the cards to them, and then wrote their own questions.

I showed them a list of possible questions. They used some of them, and then they came up with their own. (not all of them are specific to this past year).

My goal was to think of questions that would either encourage kindness or make us laugh or just be fun and help everyone learn something about everyone else.

Here are some of their cards (with some creative spelling):

They did great!

If you want to do the same thing with your family this year, you don’t have to use fancy, pre-printed cards. You could just use paper or index cards or whatever.

If you wanted your kids to make them, you could just buy some Thanksgiving stickers, and they could decorate them.

You could even use post-it notes!

Or you can scroll down to the end of this post to the link for the templates I am using this year.

Need some suggestions for questions?

Here are some possibilities:

1. If you could invite anyone to eat with us today, who would it be?

2. What is something you appreciate about someone in this room?

3. When did you laugh the hardest this year?

4. What is something you learned about yourself this year?

5. Who at this table would you like to thank? For what?

6. What is a great compliment you received?

7. What is an accomplishment from this past year you are most proud of?

8. What family member do you wish was at this table with us?

9. What is your favorite dish on this table?

10. What is something you hope to learn next year?

11. What is something you worked the hardest on this year?

12. What is your favorite holiday and why is it your favorite?

13. What is one thing you really love about one of your teachers this year?

14. Which moment from this past year would you love to relive?

15. What is the best movie you saw this year?

16. What is the most memorable book you read this year?

17. Have you received a random act of kindness this year? What was it?

18. If you could go anywhere tomorrow, where would you go?

19. What is your dream vacation?

20. What is your favorite part of Thanksgiving day?

21. What is something kind you could do for someone at school in December?

22. What is a gift you can give that doesn’t cost any money?

23. What is a funny or favorite memory you have from a past Thanksgiving?

24. What is something kind you can do for someone in this room in December?

25. What is a change you’d like to make next year?

26. What do you love the most about fall?

27. What is your favorite holiday and why?

28. What is one of your qualities that makes you a good friend?

29. What is one of your favorite memories at the beach?

30. What is one of your favorite memories of snow?

Maybe you can try this with your family this Thanksgiving. All you need is a piece of paper and something to write with, and your kids can be involved!

What a great new tradition to start with your family!

Click here to print for the PDF of our Thanksgiving_reflections template.

Here’s to an awesome Thanksgiving for all of us!