Learning How to Practice Gratitude

Introduction

• Gather students into a circle either seated in chairs or on the floor.
• Remind students about the raised hand attention signal and the talking piece.
• Welcoming: Circle time always begins with everyone being welcomed into the circle. Model welcoming a student and then have each student welcome the student sitting next to them. Be sure to rotate who sits where so students introduce different classmates. Example: “Hello Bella, welcome to our circle!”
• Optional: create a new greeting every week. For example, have students toss a small ball or bean bag to each other once they greet another student, then the student with the object greets the next student, etc.
• Once every student has been welcomed, retrieve the talking piece.
• SEL Focus: Tell students that today during their circle time, they are going to talk about gratitude and what they are grateful for.