Gratitude KS2 PSHE Guide & Activities

Free 7-page PSHE / wellbeing pack on gratitude for ages 8-12 (upper KS2 and early KS3): teacher notes, 8 discussion questions, a 30-minute lesson plan, 4 practical tools and 2 pupil worksheets.

It starts with a complaint about yellow cheese and ends with a thank-you that changes a whole breakfast table. This pack turns the story of Lena - whose mind is tuned to the ‘bad-news station’, where twenty blessings pass unseen and one missing thing fills the screen - into a ready-to-teach session on gratitude: ask, think, feel, thank; the fairness note; and the question ‘what is your request?’ Written for PSHE, RSHE and wellbeing time, guided reading, and one-to-one ELSA or SENCO sessions.

What’s inside (7 printable A4 pages)

• Teacher notes: story summary, learning objectives, curriculum links and the psychology of the bad-news station
• 8 discussion questions for circle time, guided reading or a wellbeing lesson
• A 30-minute lesson plan
• 4 practical tools with ‘try saying’ scripts for teachers, TAs and parents
• 3 activities: the Thank-You Hunt (with cut-out cards), an eight-step drama activity and a retelling task
• 2 pupil worksheets pitched at ages 8-12: “Ask - Think - Feel - Thank” and “The Fairness Note”

How to use it

You do not need the book to run this session: page 2 summarises the story and the questions stand on their own. It works well as a harvest, Thanksgiving-week or end-of-term session, or any time a class has slipped into grumbling. Print pages 6 and 7 for pupils; everything else is for the adult. The tools on page 4 are written so they can be sent home to parents as well.

Curriculum links

PSHE Association Programme of Study, KS2 - Health and Wellbeing (H16: behaviours that support mental health, including doing things for others; H18-H20: what affects feelings and how to express them); Relationships (R32-R33: respecting and valuing others, and the effect of our words and behaviour on others); Living in the wider world (L4: the importance of having compassion towards others and shared responsibilities). DfE statutory Health Education, Mental wellbeing. Also supports English reading comprehension (inference and discussion).

About the story

Never Insult the Yellow Cheese is Book 8 of the Lena series by Kidsbooks - ten short, illustrated chapter books written for ages 8-12 and read comfortably up to Year 8, each about one feeling: procrastination, anger, worry, perfectionism, boredom and screen time, gratitude, feeling left out, online safety and self-worth. Every book has a Parent & Educator Guide bound into the back, with discussion questions, puzzles, activities and an original song, and is mapped to the PSHE Association Programme of Study. The stories are secular and every page is open to parents. Discussion guides for the other books in the series are in this shop.