If you are looking for some copywork for Thanksgiving or gratitude copywork
this season, then you are in the right place! Get ready for some cursive and print copywork by famous authors.
Copywork for Thanksgiving & Gratitude
Does saying “Thank you” come naturally? Do your kids know how to say “Thank you?” Did you teach them? Most moms I know make it one of those first lessons for little ones.
Now think a moment about gratitude. Then think about giving thanks. It seems like gratitude starts inside you until you express it externally by giving thanks.
Still, we don’t always remember to say it – think about the 10 lepers that Jesus healed – only one came back to thank him.
Now
think about your kids again. If you taught them to say, “Thank
you,” did they always mean it at first? Sometimes when we are
learning to be grateful, we need to work at it from both directions –
inside and out.
Working Inside and Out
From the outside, we remind our kids to say, “Thank you.” We teach them to send thank you notes. And we should model the practice of gratitude ourselves.
We can also help put some gratitude on the inside of them. With copywork!
Besides its many other benefits, copywork can help put gratitude on your child’s heart and mind if you use selections with a gratitude theme and keep it within the child’s compass.
So how exactly is copywork going to put gratitude inside someone?
The one thing you want to avoid when using gratitude and thanksgiving-themed copywork is making the copywork oppressive.
How? How can we keep copywork from being burdensome?
4 Keys to Copywork
Here’s a brief summary of 4 key principles that I’ve used in Charlotte Mason (CM) homeschooling that apply to copywork. If you are unfamiliar with any of these, then please review CM copywork principles – they work for any style of homeschooling.
Use great selections from living books. (I’ve done this for you today!)
Use short lessons. 5-15 minutes a day is plenty!
“6 perfect stokes” (better than a page of messiness.)
The child evaluates their work (under supervision until you are confident in how they evaluate.)
That second principle is critical. Copywork that takes too long is tiresome – on the eyes, the hand, and the mind. And you should follow copywork with some non-writing lesson – that’s one of the ways to make your learning more efficient. It helps your young learner focus his attention on each task at hand by using different parts of the brain for short amounts of time. As they grow, so does the length of time they can give their complete focus. Like exercising a muscle, it grows stronger with correct usage.
So here are the promised copywork selections…
Gratitude and Thanksgiving Copywork
I’ve collected a wide selection of copywork for you. The selections include whimsical quotes, sincerely insightful thoughts, and historical notes. And I’ve included a free download of 50 pages of copywork pages – print and cursive.
If you have a child who is learning to form letters and can make perfect strokes, then they would be ready for large-sized single words or small phrases from the copywork.
Children who are fluent may want to select the longer passages in this gratitude copywork or more than one of the shorter selections.
Selections
The following selections are all gratitude or thanksgiving-themed.
By the way, I’ve tested how long it takes to write out a line of copywork. In print, cursive, and all caps (which is my most fluent form), I can write about 90 characters per minute, which is 6 of these quotes in 5 minutes. So one quote in 5 minutes is probably doable by any of your fluent students.
Remember, it’s not about speed, but if your child can write one of these quotes neatly and beautifully in one minute, they may be ready for longer passages.
Repeat: This isn’t about speed, but you want to check in on them and not make it too easy also. If they do one quote in under a minute, have them select their favorite one and copy it into their commonplace notebook. And watch for the sly learner who learns to select the shortest piece of copywork (I had one of these!)
Also,
make sure your speedsters aren’t exchanging speed for accuracy.
Basically, a thing learned imperfectly is not learned. As my old
volleyball coach used to say, “Practice makes permanent, not
perfect!”
5-minute Copywork
These are all in the free download:
Shortest:
It is good to give thanks unto the Lord. — Psalm 92
The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest. — William Blake
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. — Psalm 118:29
O Lord that lends me life, Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness! —William Shakespeare
A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues. — Cicero
I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. — Psalm 9:1
I can no other answer make but thanks, And thanks, and ever thanks. —William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude. —A.A.Milne
I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. — Psalm 100:4
Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread and pumpkin pie. — Jim Davis, Garfield at Large.
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder. — G.K. Chesterton
Medium-sized
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus — 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. — Colossians 3:17
This calls for much thankfulness from us all, which we purpose, the Lord willing, to express in a day of Thanksgiving to our merciful God. — William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation
We ought to give thanks for all fortune: if it is good, because it is good; if bad, because it works in us patience, humility, contempt of this world and the hope of our eternal country. — C.S. Lewis
To and fro, from table to hearth, bustled buxom Mrs. Bassett, flushed and floury, but busy and blithe as the queen bee of this busy little hive should be. — Louisa May Alcott, Aunt Jo’s Scrapbook
Almighty One, in the woods I am blessed. Happy everyone in the woods. Every tree speaks through thee. O God! What glory in the woodland! On the heights is peace – peace to serve Him. — Ludwig van Beethoven
Longer Copywork
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their Joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.” — George Washington, Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1789
Come, ye thankful people, come,
Raise the song of harvest home:
All is safely gathered in,
Ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, doth provide
For our wants to be supplied:
Come to God’s own temple, come,
Raise the song of harvest home.
— Henry Alford, “Harvest Home,” (1st verse of hymn)Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations. — Psalm 100
Free Gratitude Challenge
To help you out, I’ve created a simple 30 Day Gratitude Challenge Printable. Each person in your family should have their own printable. At dinner time or bedtime, let your kids write what they are thankful for that day. There is enough space on the printable to let your kids write what they are thankful for that day.
Jean is a veteran homeschooling mom of 3 sons. Trained in mechanical engineering, she has been a manufacturing engineer specializing in automation and process improvement, a technical writer and software trainer for proprietary systems, an instructional designer, and a web designer and trainer back when the internet was invented. For the past 24+ years, she has been focusing on educating the next generation. She now offers Charlotte Mason-style homeschooling tips, self-learning strategies & DIY handicraft ideas at Self Educating Family. Follow her on Pinterest.
