Things to be thankful for

My second grade students did a project this past week about things that they are thankful for. I of course modeled how to type in the text box, changing the size of the font...explaining what "thankful" means and that this is just a sentence starter - the speech bubbles below will finish the sentence. I typed in that I was thankful for "my teaching job." which I am. It is also important I feel to have students have original ideas which is why I chose it :) I taught how to change the text box into a speech bubble, resized and moved it so that there was room in the middle for the students picture. I modeled one more example, typing that I was thankful for "technology." Each of the students had between 6 and 8 things that they typed. The project was successful on so many levels. I sent a copy home with the students and kept the other to be put on the bulletin board. The students thought of the typical things such as family, friends, pets, toys, and food. Some of the students typed in things that they were studying about in school or had personal experiences with. Some not so typical things that were thought of were soldiers, freedom, the earth, animals and plants, air, my intelligence, my personality, our boat, frogs, and the sun.

It is important to reflect every so often on what we are thankful for. For some people it might just be surviving another day and for others their lives are full of things both large and small to be grateful for. I fall into this later category. I am a lucky individual. I don't take it for granted and hope that I can give back to others.