Kindergarten ABCs of Gratefulness

 As I read and commented on slices Saturday morning, I knew I would find something to love at Linda's blog, Teacher Dance.  There is always something great to find there!  On this particular day, she wrote an ABC poem of gratefulness.  I nodded in agreement (daughters and sons) and chuckled at some (underwear) as I read through the list of things she was thankful for. My first thought was: I should try this for my own slice. It sounds fun!  My second thought was: I bet my students would really enjoy this too!  

Fast forward to today!

I had a few minutes of extra time this afternoon.  Don't ask.  I'm not sure how it happened either and I'm sure tomorrow I will figure out what I left out today, but I'm glad I forgot it, whatever it was.

We spent a few minutes talk about what grateful and thankful meant.  I'm sure you can imagine how that conversation played out in my kindergarten classroom, but we got the general idea.

I pulled up Linda's blog post on the screen and read them the poem.  (They really liked the photo of your grandkids, Linda!)  They agreed with many and lost their minds in fits of giggles when I got to the "U" word.  We even made some guesses about Linda based on the things she is grateful for...she likes to eat oatmeal, apples and eggs, yellow is her favorite color and she is a mom and a grandma.  

I wrote the letters on the white board and off we went.  We each took a turn adding something we were grateful for and discussing which letter that word started with (a great review!).  Some things were silly, some were reaching a bit (notice all the zoo animals?) but some were exactly what I expected (mom, dad, family). 

Apples, boots, cousins, dads, everybody, family, God, horses, ice cream, Jesus, kangaroos, lions, moms, noses, octopus, puppies, quilts, rain, school and sisters, toys and teachers, umbrellas, vacuums, water, xylophones, yo-yos and zebras.

Pretty excellent, right?

Maybe tomorrow I will try it myself.  Thanks for the inspiration Linda!