Thanksgiving Activities, Gratitude, and More

It’s November! We made it through most of the Fall and the election! Thanksgiving (and a break!) is around the corner, so sharing some reminders and activities. Here are some from the past: Thanksgiving & Native American Heritage Month Resources & Reminders. 

Always center Native American perspectives however you address Thanksgiving in your classroom (and in general). For example, you and your students could look at the Native Land map to see whose land you're on and emphasize that they are still here. You could research the tribe whose land you are on and find out about where they are living now.

Also, show students the table depicting original tribal names and note that many tribal names were changed by white settlers. 

Learn about land acknowledgements by watching Land Acknowledgement | Molly of Denali.  (Sidenote, Molly of Denali is a great example of representation, own voices, and a genuine character that has typical trials and tribulations as all kids do. Alaskan Native voices are involved in all aspects of production and research shows positive effects on children’s use of informational text after watching the show.)

You and your students can think about creating a land acknowledgement at your school or in your community. However, keep in mind the limitations of land acknowledgements, and talk to students about how they should just be the first step and DO NOT and CANNOT undo or “fix” past wrongs. For a more in depth analysis from a Indigenous perspective, listen to this story from Oregon Public Broadcasting: As land acknowledgments become more common, Indigenous people grapple with next steps - OPB

A new picture book that is a re-telling of the story of Thanksgiving is Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story. There are discussion guides online, but unfortunately the book is sold out and won’t be back in stock before Thanksgiving. However, something to keep in mind for next year! 

I try to incorporate gratitude into my classroom all year, especially towards people in the building who take care of us. There are many studies about the positive effects of gratitude and students love putting good energy out there and planning surprises or pick-me-ups for others. 

Nikki Grimes expresses it so beautifully:

Find this poem on Twitter here. Use it to inspire students and/or yourself! Another fun idea is tiny gratitude stories from the New York Times. They asked Tell Us What You’re Thankful For, in Six Words in the past. I love these ideas for so many reasons, at the very least because there are plenty of mentor texts for students and it is something quick and easy (and FUN). Students could challenge others in the building to write one as well and add it to a wall or bulletin board.

See other Gratitude Activities We Love from our post last Thanksgiving.

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving. Hope your holidays are relaxing and filled with deliciousness!

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End of the School Year Activities

Happy June! You made it! This has been quite the year, so now it is time to celebrate everything you all have accomplished together and have some fun! I have a number of different traditions or fun activities that I love for the end of the school year. We wrote a post a few years back with some of our favorites, but I have even more ideas that are listed below.

• Write a poem for your class! We had an introduction and conclusion stanza or two as well as two lines for each student. We definitely took liberties with the rhyming, but it’s something students really love and appreciate. We’ve heard about the poem as a fond memory or something students have held on to years after (we also gave each student a copy to take home).

• A photo slideshow is always fun and appreciated! It’s been harder with COVID, masking, being in two separate groups, etc, but I’ve learned that whatever photos you share, it’s more about the memories. I do make sure I have a photo of every student and as many adults from the building as possible so no one feels left out, but that’s usually not too difficult for me as I try to take photos all year. You can use different free online programs for slideshows or Iphoto or Google Drive/Slides.

• Tie dye! Last year, my school had t-shirts made to commemorate the uber challenging year we had all been through, so we tie dyed those shirts. We ordered a kit online and were able to do it all outside, although we had to rearrange our schedule a bit with the Music teacher so we could have multiple adults with the students in smaller groups. I’ve also tie dyed in the classroom with just 2-3 students at a time over an entire afternoon while other students worked on something else. It definitely helps to have a sink, but it’s not essential! You can ask students to bring in a t shirt from home and order some backups or even tie dye socks, headbands, scarves, or anything really. Last year, since we didn’t need students to bring in shirts from home, we were able to make it a surprise, and it was so exciting for our students (as you can see from the screenshot above).

• Ask for students' feedback! We wrote about this before here and here, if you’d like to see more details or comments from actual students. We’ve found that creating a Google form or something similar and allowing students to submit their feedback online really feels official and private for students. Some don’t write a lot, while others choose to share all of their opinions and thoughts. If nothing else, it’s great modeling of being reflective and caring about their opinions and voices.

• Have a class “auction” or giveaway for things around the classroom. You’d be amazed at how excited students get about “winning” charts from the year or other equally mundane objects! It is fun and it helps you start clearing your walls. I usually just do a raffle and pick names for each object. Students can pass and have their name go back in the jar or take an object and then later do a trade. It’s fun and brings out a lot of memories from the year about different activities, projects, and more.

• Make memory books and/or provide time to sign yearbooks (if your school has them and they are accessible for everyone). My school, being an independent school, gives every student a yearbook. However, I still find making memory books a fun time to reflect on growth and fond memories. You can find various templates online (example here) or make your own that is tailored to your class! It always amazes me what students list as their favorite memories and it is fun to see what they write about their teachers. It’s also a great way to take stock of the year and remember that we all had our ups and downs.

• Take photos! This one really is as simple as it sounds - make sure to take photos of all of these joyful moments! I like to get some more whole class shots and candid ones of the students having fun. You can add them to the photo slideshow or even print some out for students. I’ve also made a private folder online that can be shared with parents in the past.

• Write notes for students: my co-teacher from the last three years started this tradition of writing notes for each student. We put a photo of the student from this year on the note as well, and we both write something about their year in our class. We’ve also given program assistants the opportunity to add their notes as well. We usually give these to students on the last day of school as a parting gift. I’ve done something similar with bookmarks in the past.

• Thank adults in the building who are often forgotten by families! This one is really important during the entire school year. Many of the people who are indispensable, keep us safe, take care of us, and keep the school running are often forgotten in the flurry of end of year thank yous. We always write notes to the people who clean up our room, take care of our building, take care of our health, and keep our school running. Make sure you know how to spell everyone’s name and how they prefer to be addressed. I often put up a photo gallery with names underneath to make sure students can make the name and face connection and spell names correctly.

• Fun projects:  Math, geography, reading, free write, and more! If you have time (we never do, but sometimes manage to squeeze something in) and freedom over your curriculum, try out an end of year project! Students love reflecting on the year and getting more time to independently study or learn about something they enjoyed. I’ve done these in many different ways and every classroom is different, but two things that really help set projects up for success are clear parameters and a sharing component. You can see the checklist for the Math project we did last year above as an example. CHIPS stands for capitalization, homophones, impressive effort, punctuation, and spelling.

• Savor your growth and how far you have come! If you wrote letters to yourselves or made new year’s resolutions or set any goals, now is a great time to revisit them and see how you surprised yourself and maybe even surpassed some goals. Make sure you do this for yourself as well, with or without your student. This was a tough year and you made it!

• Write letters to next year’s class of ___ graders/English students/etc. The advice will be hilarious and heartfelt.

• If you have some students who are anxious about the transition to a new grade or teacher (and you probably do), try to arrange some kind of meet and greet or tour of their future classroom if possible.

Congratulations teachers, it is almost summer! You did it!

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Gratitude Activities We Love

Happy almost Thanksgiving! This has been an incredibly long fall, especially for teachers. Even when we are beyond tired, it is always a good time to remind people (including ourselves) to give thanks and reflect on what we are grateful for. We like to share with students that there are many benefits to giving thanks including our own mental and physical health. But first and foremost, it’s important to appreciate the people in our lives who take care of us and keep us safe.

• Make thank you cards. My class will be working on thank you cards for many of the staff in our school building, especially the custodians who clean up after us every single day as well as the kitchen staff who cooks for us. If you don’t know everyone’s name, find time to introduce yourself, learn how their name is spelled, and how they like to be addressed. Most of the people who clean our building prefer to speak in Spanish, so I’ve had one of the Spanish teachers help us get started with some example phrases of appreciation in the past.

• A parent sent in “My First Gratitude Journals” for my entire class this year, which was so kind and generous! The journals have a page per day with some different entry formats. We gave them to the students on Friday and had them fill out one entry and will do so on Monday and Tuesday before sending them home for Thanksgiving break. Students who fill out more pages during the break can bring them in and share. We’re hoping the repeated use will lead to a habit.

• In My Map Book by Sara Fanelli (which is a great book for some many uses and my students LOVE it), the author includes a “Map of My Heart.” We are going to have students make their own maps of their hearts, focusing on who we love and are grateful for. 

• So many writing prompts! If you want to be extra cute you can make a turkey or something Thanksgiving themed (making sure there are NO cartoon Native Americans or anything like that) and have students write one thing they are grateful for on each turkey feather etc. Sometimes, it’s easier for younger students to think about things that have made them happy recently and go from there. Some prompts that I’ve used in the past are: I am thankful for, I am grateful for, Some things that made me happy recently are.. 

• Appreciation webs: we’ve made these in the past for co-workers’ birthdays, going away posters, or just for fun. In the middle of the web, you write something like “I/we appreciate _________ because..” and students fill in reasons. This can be done with writing or drawing for the really little ones. You can also use whatever verb works for you - appreciate, love, am grateful for, admire, will miss, etc. 

• Compliment or appreciation shares: We usually have an appreciation circle when it is someone’s birthday. For our Morning Meeting greeting, we all say what we appreciate about the person whose birthday we are celebrating. I’ve also written all my students’ names on slips of paper and passed them out at random and you write a compliment or appreciation for whomever’s name you receive. This might be a nice activity to end with heading into the break.

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