It's November and our virtue of the month Thankfulness is popping up all over,

Prekindergarten highlights the Virtue of the Month.

from bulletin boards to birthday groups. We designate a virtue each month as part of Swain's character education program, which aims to inspire students to embody our  Mission as we help guide and  support them on their journeys to becoming global citizens. 

But did you know that practicing gratitude may also make you healthier?

According to a Harvard Health Publications newsletter, there is definitely an "association between gratitude and an individual's well-being".  One study showed, not surprisingly, that adults in couples who took the time to express gratitude to each other were happier.  Another study showed that managers who expressed gratitude to employees motivated them to work harder.  And a third showed that people who were asked daily to write down five things they were grateful for were not only happier, but they exercised more and had fewer trips to the doctor.

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Programs have numerous benefits for students of all ages.

Interestingly, a study focusing on children and adolescents actually showed that expressing gratitude did not lead to increased personal well-being for them, causing the researchers to conclude that perhaps true "gratitude is an attainment associated with emotional maturity."  As any parent with children past infancy knows, lack of gratitude in children is certainly not a new or unusual phenomenon.  But if emotional maturity - which presumably occurs with full brain development in our late twenties, at the earliest - is necessary for getting the full benefits of gratitude, are character education programs for children a waste of time?

 No, they're not.  According to Dan Goleman in his now classic book, Emotional Intelligence, Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Programs have numerous benefits for students including building better conflict resolution skills, instilling more self-control, leading to being more popular and outgoing and increasing academic scores.  From a physical wellness perspective, I would argue achieving the above goals should lead to lower stress levels, which would then lead to greater health.  

One of the cornerstones of EI is empathy, the ability to understand how someone else feels. I believe that focusing on gratitude promotes greater empathy for others. When we think about what we have that we're thankful for, it's easier to make the

5th grade wellness focuses on identity, inclusion and empathy.

leap to understanding how others might feel who are not so fortunate. Empathy is a significant component of most anti-bullying programs and it is a significant theme in 5th grade Wellness classes, which began this week. We focus on figuring out who we are (identity), being patient with others as they figure out who they are (inclusion) and trying to understand what others might be thinking  and feeling (empathy).

One more note on gratitude:  This column from Forbes shows that kids are capable of learning and feeling gratitude (even if their personal well-being isn't increasing as a direct result), at least for the things that money can buy.  The author, who grew up in a family of modest means, struggled with the fact that the value of her children's rather privileged upbringing seemed to be escaping them.  She found that giving them financial responsibility for their own toys allowed them to recognize the value of a dollar and an understanding of the time and work that goes into earning the money to provide the things they love to play with.

Mrs. Haussmann visits Prekindergarten with I - Care Cat.

Speaking of SEL...

Our School Counselor Ruth Ann Haussmann is currently working with our Preschool and Prekindergarten classes on instilling the building blocks to gratitude and empathy.

From Mrs. Haussmann:

I - Care Cat is a puppet who travels with me to visit the preschool and prekindergarten classes.  I - Care Cat helps to teach peace making and conflict solving skills to 3 - and 4 -year- olds.  The I - Care rules are posted in every preschool and prekindergarten classroom.   

Those rules are:

1.  We listen to each other.

2.  Hands are for helping, not for hurting.

3.  We use I - Care language (kind words).

4.  We care about each other's feelings.

5.  We are responsible for what we say and do.    

During each classroom session I read books from the Learning to Get Along series by Cheri Meiners, M.Ed.  The stories illustrate the skills I am teaching.  Preschool and Prekindergarten teachers reinforce these peace making and conflict solving skills every day with their classes.  Ask your child to tell you about I-Care Cat. They enjoy his visits and are familiar with the skills he teaches.

- Ruth Ann Haussmann, School Counselor

4th Grade Wellness and a Throwback to Last Month

Fourth grade students also began wellness classes this week.  Our focus is on the

Fourth graders (shown here with a PK buddy) are learning about digestion, food choices and the immune system in wellness.

digestive system, how to choose what to eat and building a healthy immune system.  To begin the year, I like to do a "parking lot" exercise where students write questions on sticky notes and then "park" them in the spot on the white board that corresponds with the topic of the question.  I keep the questions and we make sure we answer every single one before our classes together are done.  Some of my favorite questions from this year are, Does food get in your arms and legs?, Are calories good or bad?, and Can you throw up germs?   

Fourth graders love talking about the immune system, especially when we compare white blood cells and germs to the heros and villains in video games.  Digestion always proves to be a lively discussion, especially when we talk about...um...elimination and regurgitation (or what I call the 3 P's...).  And, in theory, choosing what to eat should be as easy as remembering to breathe, but as I pointed out in last month's Thrive!, twenty-first century eating is confusing even for adults, so it's no wonder our kids have lots of questions, too!

With that in mind, I'll leave you with one last article that came out this week on a topic that's shaking up the nutrition and medical communities:  Eating Fat Is Good For You:  Doctors Change Their Minds after 40 Years.