The Magic of Gratitude

We can do a great service to our students by encouraging them to express their gratitude. Sometimes, they need a nudge to realize that appreciating the small things in life can lead to happiness.

 

3 Ways to Boost Gratitude

1. Gratitude Journaling: Buy a spiral notebook or a blank journal and choose a time each day to jot down things you’re thankful for. This could improve your outlook on life.

1. Express Gratitude to Others: Take the time to verbally express your appreciation for the people in your life. You can do so in person, in a phone call, text, or email. You don’t need a reason. If you appreciate someone, say so.

1. Practice Mindfulness in Daily Activities: Pay attention to the small pleasures and experiences throughout your day, from the way the sky looks to the taste of something you enjoy eating or drinking. Involve as many senses as you can. How does something you encounter look, taste, feel, smell, or sound?

I think it’s important to help students express gratitude for everything they receive from others. Saying thank you is a small act, but it can have a big impact on one’s mental, emotional, and physical health.

November is a month filled with opportunities to express gratitude. We celebrate Veterans Day, International Men’s Day, and Thanksgiving Day.

I have a really popular gratitude resource in my store, and it’s FREE.

 

A Gratitude Booklet makes a heartfelt gift for Christmas, birthdays, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, or any occasion. This creative writing activity encourages students to research one of their own family members or significant friends and write biographical sketches. They will enjoy learning more about their family history and will experience the joy of giving a truly unique and special gift. The recipient of the Gratitude Booklet will learn how loved and valued they are by those who contributed to the booklet.

You can download this resource here.

 

 I also have three inexpensive and helpful resources for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays.

You can download it here.

You can download this here.

You can download this here.

I am grateful to you for many reasons. Thank you for reading for reading my blog and for being a teacher. I hope you and your students and your family have a blessed holiday. 

Thanks for reading,

 

Charlene

 

Thanks for reading. Check out the Linky Party below to find blog posts from my teacher friends at The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperative. If you would like to join this group, click here.

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Tis the Season

December is almost here. It was always the shortest month in the school year for me, so I felt it necessary to accomplish as much as possible in the two and a half or three weeks of instruction available while, at the same time, celebrating the spirit of the season with my students.

 

Since learning to achieve sentence variety is a skill that all good writers must master, we worked on varying sentence patterns. Because I wanted to celebrate the spirit of the Christmas season, the sentences I put in the sentence combining exercises all had Christmas and winter holiday themes.

 

Although there is nothing wrong with sentences that begin with the subject followed by the verb, the writing becomes monotonous if a writer repeats this pattern in sentence after sentence. Most grammar checker apps will flag this writing weakness. Since ELA teachers are the official "grammar checkers" for their students, they will be watching for this also.

 

The best way to achieve sentence variety, is to move phrases and clauses to the beginning of some of the sentences or locate them in different positions to avoid the repetitive subject-verb pattern.

 

 

Here’s what I mean.

 

Original subject-verb pattern:

All my gifts sat under the tree waiting for me to open them.  

 

Revised:

 

Under the tree, sat all my gifts waiting for me to open them. 

 

Here’s another example:

 

Original subject-verb pattern:

Many people send Christmas Cards to friends and relatives a few weeks before Christmas.

 

Revised:

A few weeks before Christmas, many people send Christmas Cards to friends and relatives.

 

 

Original subject-verb pattern.

My mother insisted that we write our thank-you notes before we could play with our toys.

 

Revised:

Before we could play with our toys, my mother insisted that we write our thank-you notes.

 

You can create an exercises like these for your students to practice varying sentence patterns. The more practice they have, the better their writing will become. Here’s a free one you can print or use in Easel.

 

Here’s a FREE resource for you to use.

 

I have seven more sentence patterns resources that are ready to use and include the answers. You can purchase them separately or buy them in a bundle and save 20% on the individual resources. One of them is Thanksgiving themed and another is for Christmas. I hope you will find them helpful. You will find the bundle here.

 

I hope you have a happy, healthy, and restful winter break. I will celebrate with my husband, daughters, and grandsons. We will eat entirely too much and play board games after dinner. I look forward to both.

Here are some interesting blog posts from my teacher friends at The Best of Teacher Entrepreneurs Marketing Cooperate. I hope you enjoy them.

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