A Free Gratitude Journal Challenge for 4th and 5th Grade
The weeks before Thanksgiving are the loudest of the year, teacher friend. You want something meaningful that takes no prep, keeps students writing, and still feels like November.
This one is ours, from the Appletastic Club, and it is free: the Gratitude Challenge, a fold-up brochure where students list 100 things they are thankful for, plus six bonus coloring pages. Print it front and back, fold it in thirds, and teach it tomorrow.
What students do
Students list 100 things they are thankful for. That sounds like a lot, and it is, so the list is broken into ten categories of ten: friends, places, books, family members, foods, things I own, inventions, abilities, things in nature, and events.
Ten of anything is doable, and the categories do the thinking for the student who freezes at a blank page. The front panel has a frame for a drawing and a completed-by line, so a finished brochure stands up on a desk or goes straight onto a bulletin board.
Ways to use it
Morning work for two weeks, one category a day, takes you right up to Thanksgiving break. It also works as a Thanksgiving-week activity, sub plans, a writing center, early-finisher work, homework, small-group writing practice, or a 100th day of school project.
Print it front and back, fold it in thirds
The brochure is pages 6 and 7 of the PDF. Print them front and back on one sheet, and choose print as image in your printer settings so the two sides line up. Fold in thirds. No scissors, no glue, no mess.
Six bonus coloring sheets
THANKFUL, GRATEFUL, and BLESSED, each in two designs: a patterned word and a mandala. They are in the same PDF, pages 9 to 14. Use them for early finishers, morning work, placemats for a class feast, or a gratitude bulletin board beside the finished brochures.
Here is the free file
Click it. It opens on the downloads page. No email needed.
This resource is from the Club's Fall collection
- Back to School Activities
- Constitution Flip Book
- Autumn Symmetry
- Directed Drawings: Autumn
- Halloween Reading
- Halloween Math
- Birthday Fun Packet
- Veterans Day
- Gratitude Challenge
- Turkey Reading
- Thanksgiving Reading and Math
- Thanksgiving Activities
See everything in the Club, grade by grade
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Want every resource, ready to teach?
The Appletastic Club has over 1,500 resources for 4th and 5th grade teachers: math, reading & ELA, social studies, science, and all the fun stuff. Find what you need, print it, teach it.
Get the Book Report Lap Book. Free.
A complete book report project for grades 3–5, sent to your inbox. It works with any fiction book.
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