With Thanksgiving coming up, Division 7 has been looking into how the holiday came to be and what looking at the world with a thankful heart can do!

We started by reading about the History of Canadian Thanksgiving. Many Canadians know the story of Thanksgiving in America, but although there are many similarities between the traditions in the two countries, the reason for the holiday is not the same at all! Ask your child to teach you how Thanksgiving started in Canada.

Then we read the book Thank You, World by Alice B McGinty. It showed us how to be thankful for the little things like the morning sunrise and soft breeze. The beautiful illustrations showed us how those little things might look in different countries around the world. After reading, each of us came up with our own thing (big or small!) that we are thankful for and used our ideas to create the thankful tree you see at the top of this post.

Part of our weekly routine is our Wednesday morning quote response. Each week we look at a new quote and discuss what it means. Then students are asked to respond to the quote in writing by answering questions like:

• Do you like this quote? Why or why not?
• I connect/do not connect to this quote because…
• When I read this quote, I feel…
• This quote reminds me of…

This week our quote is connected to our theme of a thankful heart:

The heart that gives thanks is a happy one, for we cannot feel thankful and unhappy at the same time.”

Talk with your child tonight about the quote and what they think it means.

I hope you can take some time this week and long weekend to think about what you are thankful for in your life!