Festival of Gratitude
The festival of Gratitude was a celebration cum project aimed at cultivating gratitude in young minds. It focused on guiding children recognize the value of thankfulness in their lives & importance of expressing appreciation to others. Gratitude was brimmed with different weekly projects where each project was imbibed with act of kindness and thoughtfulness.The week long festival was celebrated with zeal & zest.
We had planned one project daily which included:
Gratitude towards Friends - “FRIENDS are the people who make your life better by just being with you.” Children showed their gratitude towards friends by sharing about Friendship, having Buddy interactions, celebrating in Toy Land and also by giving a token of love as friendship bands & Ice cream scoops. The day was filled with innovative class activities, stories, songs & rhymes and circle time.
Gratitude towards Nature -“Nature is The Greatest Teacher of all Time.” There is a special connection between children and nature. It ignites curiosity in children, inspire to imagine and aspire to create. Children visited “Gotila Garden” for the nature walk and did different nature related art as leaf embossing activity & leaf printing using natural colours. Activities like Planting trees & feeding birds were assigned as ‘Home Projects’.
Gratitude towards Family - A family project was designed to foster involvement/participation of all family members in cooking old forgotten sweets and relishing the same together which also included our huge “Joeys Family”.
Gratitude towards Nation - Our little people conducted a special Assembly along with teachers to pay tribute to our nation. The campus was bursting with vibrant decorations from tricoloured flags to cheerful crafts lovingly made by our little stars. Children as well as teachers shared about our great freedom fighters, national flag and symbols. The assembly was culminated with a mesmerizing performance by teachers & children. Children also enjoyed art activity related to the project.
Gratitude Towards Everyday Helpers - Everyday Helpers are the pillar of any community. Our everyday Helpers play an important part in fulfilling our daily needs. Hence, we gathered to celebrate their work and appreciated them by giving them “Thank You” card and also organized “Bhel Party” where all the staff, ground staff & children enjoyed together.
*Gratitude towards Community Helpers - At Joeys, we truly believe in parent partnership. During this project, parents were invited to do role play of Electrician, Plumber, Painter, Security guard, Green Grocer etc. and share about their work in “Joeys Community Mela”.Children were provided with the information regarding the tools used by them. It was an unique experience for children to watch their parents as a part of their teaching-learning process at school.
The “Gratitude Festival” held a significant importance in fostering early socio-emotional development. Guiding young children with the concept of Gratitude helped our children built a strong foundation for positivity, empathy, kindness, strong relationship, instill good manners, encouraged family involvement and appreciation.
Last but not the least, encouraged reflection and minfulness. It helped children become more aware of their own feelings, the feelings of others and importance of expressing appreciation in daily life.
