Dear PS 107 Families,
With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I want to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the PS 107 community. Every day, you exemplify our Core Values of compassion, curiosity, and community. I am deeply touched by all of the ways in which this manifests, from volunteering to help Ms Diane in PE classes; to making regular donations to support our partner, CHiPS as they feed hundreds of our neighbors daily; to donating supplies to your children’s classrooms during a tough budget year; to dropping off treats to keep our staff going during difficult days; to volunteering to organize PS 107’s family and fundraising events like Fall Festival, the Book Fair, the Stoop Crawl, the Craft Fair, and more; and, most importantly, to providing your children with the strongest possible foundation so that they can go out there and change the world!
Having a regular gratitude practice is so important, and it’s something we all (myself humbly included) neglect to engage in on a daily basis. Our brains are wired to focus on the negative – this helped us to remember threats to our safety and survive thousands of years ago. But in modern times, that negativity “bias” is a bit too strong, and we need to actively combat it with our own gratitude practice. Starting this past Monday, we are doing this as a staff at PS 107, leaving little messages of gratitude for our colleagues in their mailboxes all this week and next. Some of our teachers are doing this as well in their classrooms! For instance, Ms Gina and Ms Abby’s class has gratitude journals that they write in daily after reflecting on what they appreciate in their lives.
You can cultivate gratitude in your children at home as well! And gratitude is much more than just saying thank you. According to the Raising Grateful Children Project at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, gratitude is an experience that has four parts:
What we NOTICE in our lives for which we can be grateful
How we THINK about why we have been given those things
How we FEEL about the things we have been given
What we DO to express appreciation in turn
For more on this, see this article from Greater Good magazine. In addition, VeryWell Mind offers easy tips for teaching gratitude to your children.
To our beautiful community, have a wonderful Thanksgiving break! I hope that you have time to connect with friends and family, rest and rejuvenate, and notice all that we can be truly grateful for.
Warmly,
Ms Joanna