BHES students learn thankfulness as a tool
By HOLLY GASKILL
For the youngest minds at Bluffton-Harrison Elementary School, teacher Zella Walborn is helping students to understand the importance of thankfulness this season.
Walborn leads a special rotation class teaching social skills and character education. “An attitude of gratitude,” as Walborn calls it, helps students regulate their emotions and work through difficult situations.
“One of the things that I do is I give students tools to help them regulate — gratitude is one of the tools,” Walborn said.
She’s led her students through 30 days of gratitude, working with each group of students at their level. They began by discussing what they’re thankful for, what makes them happy and what makes them smile — the youngest students drew pictures, second grade students made a gratefulness chain, and older students added items to a gratitude jar.
Each final product is on display in Walborn’s classroom. While some items are simple and sweet, like family or Coke Zero, Walborn also sees how students dig deeper to consider their blessings.
Cassie Schoonbeck noticed a similar pattern as she challenged her fourth grade classroom to “Thankful Thursday.” Every week the group fills a board with what they’re grateful for.
“It’s been cool to see the conversation switch from just friends, family (and) food, to having a student say she was thankful for honesty,” Schoonbeck said. “Recognizing that you can be thankful for more than the tangible things has been really cool … or to be able to put words to why they’re thankful for air, because then (they) can breathe like — things like that. Another (student said) she’s thankful for happiness, just the ability to be happy.”
As their classrooms have been practicing thankfulness, both Walborn and Schoonbeck have then tasked their students with projects to share their thankfulness with others.
In the week leading up to Thanksgiving break, Schoonbeck’s students worked with Sara Runyon’s kindergarten class to put together a thankfulness book. They drew pictures of what they were thankful for, swapping ideas and uploading them to iPad Creator to make a book. The students will then share the book with their parents.
“It’s been good to see them step up, and they get really excited to work with the kids,” Schoonbeck said. “I think it gives them more of an understanding that they are the leaders in the school.”
Walborn has similarly encouraged her students to help others with a thankful heart. Most recently, her students put together cards for veterans with Honor Flight Northeast Indiana, inspired by a recent honor flight Walborn took with her dad.
In practicing thankfulness with her students, Walborn recognized that even young children are often processing tough situations and difficult emotions. Some have difficult home lives, while others are experiencing grief and loss for the first time. Whatever the situation, Walborn hopes gratitude and service become tools to overcome hard things.
“We’re all going to go through hard things,” Walborn said. “And the feelings that come are OK. It can be hard, but we can choose to be positive even when bad things happen. That doesn’t take away the bad things, it just helps us to have a better perspective and to be able to choose joy.”
holly@news-banner.com
