I am Thankful for...

This year I wanted to have my kids write about what they are thankful for. Obviously it is Thanksgiving time! I wanted them to think about side the box a little though so I created this organizer for them to think about what they are thankful for at home, at school, in Pensacola, in the USA and in the world. I thought that if they had to think outside their comfort zones home and school it would be interesting to see what they were really thankful for. Pensacola has some unique things that no where else has, we in the United States have things that we take for granted that no other country has and then a world view, what are you thankful for in the world is a tough question that requires some thinking.

I modeled this organizer on the board and then sent them off thinking. I then collected the organizers and passed them out again the second day. I asked the kids to read through what they were thankful for and either add to it or take away if they needed to. Some of my kids struggled with what they were thankful for in Pensacola, the USA and the world.
They are now working on writing an essay, one paragraph for what they are thankful for at home, one for what they are thankful for at school, one paragraph for what they are thankful for in Pensacola, one for what they are thankful for in the USA and one for what they are thankful for in the world, they should also have a introduction paragraph and a closing paragraph. It is a long writing assignment but I think it gets them thinking and sharing about what they are thankful for.

While doing this activity a curious thing happened, a student asked if she could be thankful for God. I gave her a puzzled look and said "Yes, why couldn't you be thankful for God?" She then explained that she wasn't sure if that was okay since it was a school paper and she didn't want to get in trouble for it. I guess I never thought about that and gave her another curious look because she kept on explaining that she was told that she wasn't allowed to at one point but she wasn't sure why and she knew that at school you kept church stuff to yourself, etc etc. I did like her explanation of things but did eventually stop her and I explained my response to her and the rest of the class "Yes you are writing at school but you are writing about what you are thankful for, and you can be thankful for whatever you want. I am not going to be evaluating what you are thankful for but how you wrote about it. If you are thankful for left shoes and she is thankful for her dog I can't say that one is more valuable than the other because they are what you value."

I thought it was sweet and yet concerning that a fifth grader would be concerned about writing about God in class. I know that church and state are separate but it still seemed strange that she was so worried about being in trouble for writing about it. Is that really what we are teaching our kids? I mean I am not super religious but I would never tell my kids they couldn't write about their beliefs if it fit the topic or genre we were writing about. Right?

So what are you thankful for?? When it is closer to Thanksgiving I will post my "essay" of all the things I am thankful for!