Gratitude Lesson

Today I read "The Happy Owls" by Celestino Pilatti to teach 2nd graders the concept of gratitude. It's a simple story about two owls that are happy, while the discontented barnyard fowl wonder why.

When the peacock asks the owls about their happiness, they answer with, "When spring comes, we are happy to see everything come to life after the long winter sleep...." and they continue to describe the beauty of each season.

The chickens and ducks and geese and peacocks retort, "You call that happiness?" and go on living as before.

"But the owls snuggled still closer to each other, blinked their big round eyes, and went on thinking their wise thoughts."

Since the words gratitude and thankfulness aren't mentioned in the book, I asked the kids what the story had to do with gratitude. It was a difficult question, but a few kids observed that the owls were thankful for nature and each other.

Then I shared a quote that Jennifer Wood found. "Gratitude consists of being more aware of what you have, than what you don't." That seems to be the difference between the happy owls and the discontented barnyard fowl.

We talked about how important it is to be thankful. It makes us feel better, and when we express it to others, it makes them feel better too. Then we finished the lesson with drawing people, places, and things we are grateful for

This is a list of some of the things the 2nd graders are thankful for ( in their spelling):

sumer, witefish, my mom and dad, my bruther, ride a bick, bird, cow, trees, plants
lost vegas, ckickball, sun, grass, snow, home, bigfork, school, football, thrack, soccer, my techers, the forest, spiders, food, dodgeball, tag, P.E. and the erth.