Are you looking for a quick and easy way to develop self-acceptance and gratitude in the classroom this month? Keep reading to learn about a simple writing activity that you can use to help your students reflect and identify reasons they are “lucky” this St. Patrick’s Day!
The Importance of Encouraging Self-Acceptance and Gratitude in the Classroom
Teaching your students to accept who they are and be grateful for what they have can help them build healthier relationships and foster positive mental health. With a focus on self-acceptance and gratitude, you can provide students with the opportunity to recognize their own strengths and abilities, develop positive self-talk, and build stronger relationships with peers, teachers, and other adults in their lives.
Self-acceptance is a critical part of growing up and developing healthy relationships with ourselves and others. Accepting who we are helps us to be more confident in our decisions, relationships, and environment. It also allows us to recognize our strengths and weaknesses so that we can work on improving different aspects of our lives.
Gratitude helps us recognize and appreciate the good things in our lives, even during difficult times. It also has a positive effect on our mental health as it can shift our mindset and increase feelings of happiness and contentment. Practicing gratitude is especially important for younger students, who are still learning to recognize and appreciate the good in their lives. It gives them an opportunity to focus on the positive parts of their lives, which can lead to better overall physical and mental health.
FREE “Lucky to Be Me” Writing Activity
Leading up to St. Patrick’s Day, your students can practice self-acceptance and gratitude with a simple writing activity. The FREE “Lucky to Be Me” resource is a one-page activity that calls for students to reflect on reasons they are “lucky.” Depending on what your end goal is, you can use this activity to encourage students to think about all that they have to be thankful for, or you can use it to help students recognize their own strengths and abilities and develop positive feelings about themselves. You could even give your students the choice!
To complete this activity, students record the reasons they are lucky on the lines provided and then add an illustration to go with it. If this is a new concept for your students, or your students need a review of self-acceptance and gratitude, you may wish to have a whole class discussion beforehand to go over what each means. Be sure to model how to complete this reflection activity and have students spend a few moments brainstorming different attributes or things in their lives that they feel “lucky” to have. Attributes may include enthusiasm, trustworthiness, creativity, patience, determination, perseverance, dedication, respectfulness, and more! Students may wish to jot down some ideas in their writing journals or a sticky note before transferring their ideas onto the final writing paper.
Once your students finish the activity, you can compile all the pages to create a class book or to display on a bulletin board. Students will love showing off their greatest attributes, celebrating their self-worth, and sharing everything that makes them “lucky.”
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