Dear Families,

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving long weekend with your loved ones!  In class, I look forward to hearing about your family's 'Thankful Stone' sharing experience.  Students were extremely excited to bring home their 'Thankful Bags' and share the contents inside with you!  

Below I have posted pictures of all the special treasures inside the bag for you to enjoy over the weekend :)

I know many of you will cherish your child’s Thankful Letter.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as your child enjoyed writing it this week.  As I conferenced with students to offer feedback, I was deeply touched by their thoughts, words, and actions in their heartfelt message to you!

Stone Soup:
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my deepest gratitude to ALL the families who took time out of their work days to join us in our "Stone Soup" Celebration.  It was a huge success!!  

Many of you shared with me how very excited your child was to participate in this and to have you there meant the world to all of us.  When I totaled up the RSVP's last evening to set out the chairs for you, I accounted for 42 guests!  Your compassion and support was felt! 

Below I will also post the many photos of  us creating the soup which lots of you commented on how delicious it was!  I agree!!  It was all the love that went into it from your child's contribution in washing, peeling, and cutting the veggies to place in our crock pots!!

As a teacher, I strongly believe in parent-child-teacher working closely together as a team to help our children rise to their highest potential!  I can say with confidence, the students certainly put in their "level 4 personal best" and performed exceptionally well.  

I am extremely proud of their efforts, they've lit up my heart!  At the conclusion of our Stone Soup presentation, I thoroughly enjoyed connecting with many of my students' families as well, what a wonderful opportunity to do so!  

I know we are going to continue having a year filled with purpose, passion, and productivity!  This is the greatest gift I have received, having your child in my class!   

Gratitude:
This week we spent a lot of time thinking and learning about the word and importance of GRATITUDE.  Ask your child what it means :)  I shared a powerful read aloud (see picture below) with the students to get their mindsets thinking about giving thanks!

I love when students take their learning from school to home and teach their family members!!  Here is an example.  Earlier this week, Hannah shared about how she taught her younger sister about being thankful each and every day, and being grateful isn't just something we do or feel just on Thanksgiving.  We can have "an attitude of gratitude" (being thankful) each and EVERY DAY!  Way to go, Hannah, that's the spirit!

Inside your child's thankful bag, I included a bright pink page which helps teach us the importance of gratitude and how it helps with brain development!

There is science research behind gratitude and how it helps our brains.  The research tells us that gratitude is awesome for our health and well-being!  Gratitude actually changes our brains.  Practicing gratitude increases neuron density and leads to higher emotional intelligence so we actually get smarter.  Gratitude is like a secret sauce for happiness :)

Being in a state of gratitude feels GOOD and it increases:

• optimism
• caring, cooperation and friendship
• motivation to work hard at school
• happiness
• calm and ready to learn!

LOOK AT ALL THOSE CHARACTER TRAITS!!

In class, I will be regularly emphasizing the importance of gratitude as we are all so fortunate to be at Nottawa together to continue to learn and grow with one another!

Cross-Country Running:
Congratulations to ALL our Nighthawk runners from grades 4-8 who competed in the area cross country meet on Tuesday.  I am especially proud of MY students Coleton, Cameron, Joella, Raelynn, Emma, Darcie, Sebastien, Cayden, and John who participated and gave it their all! 

For some, this was stepping outside their comfort zone, but they did their best and had FUN!  Grade 4 is a wonderful opportunity to try new things within sports teams at our school, so I will always encourage and support my students to participate.

Keep FIT and have FUN!

Hannah:
Thank you Hannah for the sweet treat for a Thanksgiving gift :)  Girl Guide cookies are one of my most favourite!  Your thoughtful actions are appreciated and I'll be sure to share these with my family and friends over the holiday long weekend!

John:
John also filled my bucket by sharing a beautiful decorated stone with me on Monday morning.  He helped set a positive tone for the work week.  Your kindness and creativity means a lot to me!  Thank YOU!!

Mindfulness:
What are you grateful for and why?  Instead of counting "sheep" before going to bed, you may wish to count all your wonderful "blessings" you have in your life!  Give it a try :)  You'll be amazed at how many things you're blessed with.  This will help you sleep deeper and more restfully.

From my heart to yours, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Growth Mindset:

Thank you Emma for sharing these meaningful words with us this week!!

Namaste,

Ms. Gill