Encouraging Polite Table Manners in Children

Continuing on with our theme of kind children, I wanted to share with everyone a copy of our "Thanks Before Meals" poem.  I really believe that teaching children to wait for everyone to eat, and to pause to be thankful, is so wonderful and important.

By having kids participate in saying thanks before they begin eating, you can easily teach them some wonderful manners.  They need to be aware of everyone else around them before they can even begin the poem - it's wonderful!

This poem will easily work with anyone with any sort of background as you can choose who or what you are thanking!

We also do hand motions with it in class to really keep the little ones engaged.  For food, we do a pretend getting food off a plate with a fork and eating it motion.  The friends so sweet part is done by giving yourself a big hug.  To make a bird, we cross over our thumbs and wiggle our fingers like bird wings.  Finally, to represent love, we make a heart by putting our thumbs together and then curving our fingers around.

You can even choose one child who gets to start the thank you poem.  We always give this job to our Student of the Week.  Then, everyone says it together once that particular child begins it.  If you are doing this at home, you can easily rotate nights or weeks also.!

Raising polite children may be work, but it will be so worth it in the end!  Enjoy the print-ables for your own home or classroom in the links below.  Feel free to pass our little poem along, too!  xoxo

Thanks Before Meals PDF
File Size:	61 kb
File Type:	pdf

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Thanks Before Meals JPEG
File Size:	39 kb
File Type:	jpg

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