On February 11th, we (Aeon, Kiara, Tera and Ivy in Grade 6) went to a gratitude symposium at St. Johns School. The event was held by the Gratitude Graffiti Project. There were nine schools altogether. When we got there, they gave us an introduction to the project and told us how it started and about the practice of gratitude and its benefits.
After the introduction we read a short story about gratitude. The story was set in 1900s. The story was about two little girls that were friends. The girls decided that they would give each other a gift every day. The first day one little girl bought the other one a very expensive silver ring with a blue gem in the middle, it cost 5¢, half of her weekly allowance. The other girl got her a purple pansy. The little girl looked down at the pansy. “It has the feel of velvet!,” said the other little girl. Each Monday they gave each other different gifts. But every time, the little girl bought something, the other girl got something from the heart. We learned that true happiness isn’t bought with money.
After that, we started a graffiti poster. On it, we drew symbols of gratefulness and we wrote what we were grateful about. We also wrote things on it about our school. When we finished, we learned two breathing techniques to help bring us into a calm state so we can focus on gratitude. We then went on a “gratitude walk” where we walked around the block silently looking at things we were grateful for and things we wouldn’t of noticed normally.
After we were done at the symposium, we walked back to school with Mrs. Regan. While we walked, we talked about what we were grateful for and what we are going to do for our school gratitude project. We are inspired to start a Gratitude Graffiti Wall for our Junior School and we will produce a Junior School-wide Gratitude Project next school year in Grade 7. We learned that it’s not things that make you happy, it is you deciding to be happy at that certain moment. Video games, iPads and electronics don’t make you happy, its your self who is doing all the work.
By: Aeon , Kiara, Tera, and Ivy from Grade 6.
