Teaching about Giving Thanks

Giving thanks isn't just an idea for Thanksgiving. It's not a one day thing. Being Thankful should be a part of your everyday life, especially if you are a Bucket Filler! I loved talking about this in my class today for thoughtful thursday (theme of the day during ELD pullout).

As you might remember from a recent halloween post, I've been having a hard time figuring out how to talk about the holidays (all of them) when I have a few students in my class who don't celebrate for religious reasons. Whenever I bring up a topic related to a holiday or celebration, my little ones will chime in that they can't do that. Well...today I was very proud of how I handled talking about Thanksgiving!

You see,  I've been reading a book for transition between cleaning up and when the kids come back from ELD, and I find myself continuing to gravitate towards my collection of holiday related stories. I try to read them and not have much personal dialogue on the topic, but today I found a great way (and the courage!) to talk about how thanksgiving isn't just meant to be a one day thing. It's about being thankful for everything you have and showing that in your actions (hence, Thoughtful)

I borrowed this lovely book from my teammate and was able to talk to the kids about how being a person who gives thanks is a great way to fill other people's buckets because we are showing them how much we love and care for them. Yes, the story talked about thanksgiving the holiday, but that was not the main topic. I loved the illustrations in this book and how it got the kids talking about all of the things that they are thankful for.

We did "I am thankful for ___" writing too. I loved these :) I'll have to post some pics soon! One cutie said he was "thankful for Jesus and all of the presents he gets from Him." haha. He's sort of getting the picture ;) He then said "Jesus is SO BIG! Bigger than anyone!" which prompted another little guy to say he was "big, too!" The rebuttal from little guy #1 was precious. :) "No way! He's bigger than all of us!"

I love when they talk about Jesus, even if I can't chime in other than to say how much I loved that thought. :)

Today I am thankful for books that give honor to a holiday while showing how it can practically relate to the lives of our children. I am also thankful for my teammates wonderful collection of books :) 

And of course I'm thankful for all of you in blogland and that I have a place to share my silly teaching stories! 

What are you thankful for?

1 comments

Can't celebrate holidays....

I have a couple of students this year whose families don't celebrate holidays or birthdays for religious reasons. Because we want to respect their choice and "celebrate" each others differences (didn't mean that in a bad way, but it's the only word I can think of haha) we do not celebrate holidays in the classroom other than a short party on the day of, where the child can go to another place during that time. I'm having a hard time with it this year because I am seeing all of your super cute Halloween themed games and lessons! I so badly want to talk about them and explore themes in the classroom, but am afraid of offending certain families (we have had this happen in the past).

It's not that we pretend holidays and celebrations don't happen, we just don't make a big deal out of them. I can tell I am going to have a HARD time with this at Christmas! It's already hard for me to not talk about the meaning behind Christmas, even when families do celebrate it! :) Do any of you have advice for me?? What do you do??

Oh the joys of public schools.... :)

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