How to Celebrate Thanksgiving the Montessori Way

Thanksgiving is a perfect time to help your child learn about gratitude, love and compassion.

In her teachings, Dr. Maria Montessori focused on giving thanks for the good things in life. She believed that encouraging gratitude in children would help with their overall development. In fact, she focused on making “grace and courtesy” a core part of the Montessori philosophy.

Make Thanksgiving About Gratitude

There are many ways to incorporate Montessori in your family’s Thanksgiving celebration this year. Here are a few tips that can help you bring the Montessori philosophy into your home this Thanksgiving:

1. Include your child in the Thanksgiving meal preparation. One ideal way to incorporate Montessori philosophy into your family’s Thanksgiving celebrations is to allow your child to help you with meal preparation. Measuring ingredients is a great way to begin to instil basic math lessons. And the smorgasbord of potential colors should delight the artistic side of your child.
2. Talk about being thankful. Take a moment to recognize what makes your child and your family grateful. If you have a table full of food and the family gathered around (or attending virtually), you have a lot to be thankful for. This is a moment to recognize all that you have and to make sure your child is aware of this.
3. Create a holiday centerpiece for the table. Thanksgiving offers lots of ideas for creative arts-and-crafts projects. Turkey is one of the most enduring Thanksgiving crafts. Work with your child on creating a pine-cone turkey for the table centerpiece. Use a pine cone for the body, a nut in a shell for the head, and some construction paper for the feathers. Add some googly eyes to the nut to make it even more fun!

Encourage your child to come up with the things they are thankful for, prompting them to talk about the good in their lives. To create a culture of gratitude, this should be done every day, but the topic is especially relevant on Thanksgiving.

At La Prima Casa Montessori, we keep our focus on gratitude and make “grace and courtesy” a big part of our lessons throughout the year. To take a peek at our Thanksgiving celebrations, follow us on Facebook.

To learn more about the Montessori curriculum and the benefits of Montessori education, please call us at 305-854-8001 and schedule a tour. It will give you a chance to witness the Montessori philosophy in action and see why it is that La Prima Casa alumni consistently move on to Miami’s top schools and gifted programs!

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This article has been reviewed and edited by La Prima Casa Montessori
20th November 2025.