The Giving Tree



"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted."

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and boy, am I excited. I love turkey, gravy, stuffing, and pie. I love naps and relaxing. But mostly, I love the feeling of love and kindess that is in the air. People want to take time with one another to celebrate life.

As we know, Thanksgiving is about giving thanks and taking the moment to think about the multitude of blessings that we have in our life. Instead of asking students what they wanted to give thanks for. I asked them what small acts of kindness they could give. 

We read one of my favorite books, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. A story about a boy and his tree.  The tree gives away everything she has because she wants to help the boy to be happy. And because he is happy, she is happy. It is very simple book with beautiful black and white pictures- but it quickly captures the wonder of kids.

I took this book to my second grade classes so that we could talk about this concept: giving and then we made our very own giving tree. They traced thier hands out in various colors and were instructed to write one, no-cost, gift that they could give to the people in thier life. For some, it was a stretch to go beyond the materialistic and others caught on right away.

Overall, it was a very successful and endearing lesson to teach and I had so much fun!