Printable gratitude journal prompts can help children and adults create the habit of noticing the blessings in life and find acceptance and gratitude for what is–so they can feel greater joy and happiness.
If gratitude is the cure, this printable list of gratitude journal prompts can help remind us of everything we have to be grateful for–so that we can feel greater joy, happiness, and abundance every day. Use this list of printable gratitude journal prompt ideas to help children from preschoolers to teens learn how to practice gratitude for life! You might also like the “I Am Thankful for” gratitude printable for kids and adults.
Children don’t need to read or write to use the gratitude prompts on this list–all you need to do is ask them! That’s why this printable list of gratitude prompts also makes excellent dinner conversation starters–especially at the Thanksgiving Dinner Table. 😉
Related: I Am Grateful: Gratitude Journal Printable
What is Gratitude?
Gratitude brings abundance. To feel grateful, we must open ourselves to the wealth of experience occurring all around us. It is about noticing and expressing appreciation for all the good things in life that bring you joy.
In other words, being grateful is about focusing on the blessings in life instead of focusing attention on the negative aspects of life, social media, or what one does not have.
Practicing gratitude is associated with increased happiness, well-being, and fulfillment. When we focus more on the positive aspects of life and what brings us joy, we can find greater satisfaction in life.
And the body of research proving the many benefits of gratitude continues to add up.
Related: Thanksgiving Gratitude Activities and Crafts
30 Printable Gratitude Prompts
Starting a gratitude journal and using printable gratitude prompts can help children and adults establish the habit of paying attention to the good things in life. And this list of 30 gratitude journal prompts can help children and adults to find simple things they are thankful for and learn to express their gratitude.
Giving more of our attention to the people, events, places, and things we are thankful for can lead to the simple pleasure of feeling grateful and fulfilled. Use these printable gratitude journal prompts to help create gratitude journal entries, or pass them around the table on Thanksgiving to share your gratitude with family members.
Or, if you are a teacher looking for creative writing ideas, ask your students to choose one of the gratitude prompts on the list below to write a more in-depth essay about gratitude. I promise the whole class will feel better once they are finished.
Gratitude activities and crafts and reading gratitude books are a few more fun and easy ways to help children learn to express gratitude and thankfulness.
Related: Thanksgiving Traditions
Gratitude Prompts Printable
Did you know that gratitude journaling is an easy way to create the habit of practicing gratitude for life?
Below you will find a list of questions to prompt gratitude for gratitude journaling.
Download and print 30 gratitude journal prompts —> HERE.
- What was the best thing that happened today?
- Who makes you feel loved and why?
- Name something that makes you happy.
- What is your favorite outdoor activity?
- Name someone that helps you.
- What is your favorite thing to do on the weekend?
- Name something that you are grateful to have.
- What do you like to do with your family and why?
- Name someone nice to you.
- Where is your favorite place to go?
- Name someone that makes you smile.
- Who is your best friend and why?
- What do you like most about school or your job?
- What do you like most about your favorite subject?
- Who was the last person to give you something?
- What is the best gift that you have ever received?
- Name the best thing that has ever happened to you.
- What is your favorite game or sport, and why?
- Where is your favorite place to play or relax?
- What do you like most about your family?
- Name an animal that you feel thankful for.
- What is your favorite thing to do at home?
- Name a person that you love and why.
- What is your favorite hobby, and why?
- Who do you like to spend time with?
- Name someone that you feel grateful for.
- What is your favorite food and why?
- Name an activity that makes your heart sing.
- Describe something that you like about yourself.
- Name something that makes you laugh.
Related: Word of the Year Ideas Printable
How to Use Gratitude Journal Prompts
Reminding ourselves of everything we have to be grateful for is a powerful way to increase feelings of happiness and abundance.
“Gratitude makes sense of your past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
~Melody Beattie
Use this handy list of gratitude journal prompts to help you find your way out of darkness and sorrow–and into the light of gratitude.
Step 1 – Download and print gratitude journal printable prompts.
- Click HERE to download and print printable gratitude journal prompts.
Step 2 – Use gratitude prompts to help start entries in your gratitude journal.
- These free printable gratitude journal prompts make creating meaningful journal entries easy. Anything you can write in or on, including lined paper, a sketchbook
, a Moleskine notebook, or a blank journal or diary, can be used for gratitude journaling.
, a 
or diaryYou can find other excellent gratitude journals for kids and adults at your favorite local bookstore. Or journal somewhere outside where nature will wash it away. And writing with a stick in mud or sand is a great way to do this.
As a teenager, I recall spending countless evenings down by the seashore, writing everything I was grateful for with a twig in the sand because I was afraid my brothers would read my diary. Use whatever works for you!
Gratitude Journal Tips
Feel it in your heart
Creating meaningful entries in a Gratitude journal is a much more effective way to produce lasting feelings of thankfulness. So, instead of quickly jotting down a list of items, create lasting gratitude by taking the time to feel what you are grateful for.
Gratitude journal prompts make it easy to find something that you are grateful for to write about. When we feel gratitude in our hearts, we are more likely to extend our feelings of gratefulness to the world around us.
Taking the time to doodle or create drawings that go with your responses is another excellent way to feel gratitude in your heart as you make each gratitude journal entry. I like to call it gratitude art therapy!
Related: I am Grateful: Gratitude Journal Printable
Make it personal.
Spend time personalizing each gratitude journal entry. Create art, doodle, or draw anything or anyone you are thankful for in life. If you like that idea, THIS printable gratitude journal page makes drawing and doodling your gratitude journal entries fun and easy.
This activity can help you focus more on your gratitude for the blessings in your life–instead of what you don’t have. And spending time thinking about what we have to be thankful for can help increase happiness and well-being.
Have fun personalizing your gratitude journal with gel pen
doodles, gratitude stickers
, and anything else that makes you feel good!
Focus on people and events more than things.
Focusing on people and positive events can help create stronger feelings of thankfulness and gratitude. Meaningful events and the people in our lives usually bring us more joy than the things we have.
Related: The Power of Rhythms and Routines
Please take a moment to think of your life without them.
Increase gratitude by thinking of what your life would be like without them. In other words, consider the absence of the people, places, and things that you are most thankful for as a way to increase your feelings of gratitude toward them.
Create a new meaningful gratitude journal entry at least once per week.
Believe it or not, daily gratitude journal entries are not as effective as writing what we are grateful for less often. (source) So, use a gratitude journal prompt to create a new ‘meaningful’ gratitude journal entry at least once per week to help increase feelings of gratefulness.
Why? Writing down what we are grateful for daily can desensitize us to the things that matter in our lives, especially when it’s a quick list made every day without any heart.
Related: How to Create an Action Plan to Accomplish Goals
Gratitude Journal Printable Prompts
Printable gratitude journal prompts can help children and adults learn how to express gratitude for life.
If you are wondering how to teach kids about gratitude, look at this fun collection of gratitude activities. It includes activities, crafts, and other great resources for parents and educators that make it easy to teach kids how to be grateful.
If you are looking for Thanksgiving gratitude activities for kids and families, click the link!
Learn more about Rhythms of Play HERE!
Gratitude Journal Prompts PrintableMore Gratitude Activities and Crafts
- Gratitude Activities and Crafts
- Thanksgiving Gratitude Activities and Crafts
- Children’s Books about Gratitude that Inspire Thankfulness
- I am Grateful: FREE Gratitude Journal Printable
- How to Make Clay Gratitude Leaves
- Top 10 Thankful Trees
- How to Make a Thankful Tree with Real Leaves
Hello,
I’ve been trying to download the free-to-use PDF Gratitude prompts by clicking on the links given…and all that happens is I go in circles to another page that states again to “click here!” Could you please tell me how to download the PDF you mention is free to use? I would be full of gratitude if you would do so! 🙂
Hi Sheryl, I’m so sorry that you are having trouble downloading the gratitude journal prompts. I just tested it myself and it worked for me. Sometimes it does not work on mobile. Have you tried to download it on a desktop or laptop computer?