Pause for Thought: Being Grateful
How do we show our gratitude?
by Jan Edmunds (video recording by Verity Thornhill)
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To consider the importance of kindness and gratitude.
Preparation and materials
- You will need to have the means available to play the video below. It is 4.09 minutes long.
Assembly
Time for reflection
Lucky showed his gratitude to Jack by saving his life, and Jack did not abandon his faithful friend. He, too, showed gratitude in return.
Think about and discuss the following questions.
- Who are we grateful to?
- Who has helped us recently?
- Are we people who say ‘thank you’ often?
- Is there someone to whom we should show gratitude today?
You may wish to repeat the prayer from the video.
Prayer
Dear God,
Teach us to show our gratitude for what we have
By caring for those around us,
And for the wonderful world in which we live.
Amen.
Song/music
‘The thank you song’, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcfqDPAy7zc (1.05 minutes long)
Extension activities
- In the video, you saw Lucky the dog. Do you have any puppets in your house? Could you act out the story of Lucky and Jack using your puppets? Or maybe you could make up a different puppet show!
- You can make your own puppets from all sorts of materials, including kitchen gloves, card and sticks.
- A YouTube tutorial on how to make finger puppets from kitchen gloves is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iInt61sktNk (3.34 minutes long)
- Instructions and printable templates for making finger puppets out of card are available at: https://www.accessart.org.uk/fingerpuppets/
- Instructions and printable templates for making stick puppets are available at: https://www.firstpalette.com/craft/family-stick-puppets.html (Remember: you can use sticks from the garden or cut sticks from a cardboard box if you don’t have any lolly sticks or craft sticks.)
