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Gratitude is a feeling that allows us to consider the benefit or favour that has been made to us or was intended, and to correspond to it in some way.

This feeling, like all the others, is developed thanks to the education given to the child. A child tends to feel affection towards what gives him something or allows him to do what he wishes, but this develops in a very concrete plane and it is not really a personal quality as gratitude is.

Any feeling in the child is very unstable, it depends on the concrete situation, if the child likes or not to do something, or he does it to please the adult, later if he is well stimulated, this feeling consolidates, internalizes and goes on to become a quality of his developing personality.

We can tell that there is already a consolidated quality of gratitude, when the child is able to understand that although he is not pleased in everything it is for his own well-being, but this is only achievable towards the end of the early childhood. Before that, gratitude is related to what the child is allowed to do, reason why little by little it is necessary to construct a much more stable value especially when they carry out activities that not are always absolutely positive.



ACTIVITY No 1
"THE GRANDMOTHER"

Summary of the activity: In the first part of the activity we will verify what the children know about gratitude, in the second part we will be explain to them with examples what this feeling consists of. Finally, in the third part we will tell a story to illustrate how grateful people act.

Objectives:
• To develop in the children knowledge on how grateful people act.
• To develop positive emotions about being grateful with other people.

Procedures:
 • Conversation
• Explanation
• Narration
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Pictures and photos of an old woman feeding little birds.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will ask questions to determine what the children know about gratitude; this must be done in an informal meeting of the group.

Do you know what gratitude is?
How can a person demonstrate his gratitude?
To whom should we demonstrate gratitude?
How is gratitude demonstrated?

He will let the children express themselves freely, making sure that the word, that has a noticeable intellectual connotation, is heard by them although they may not relate to it directly yet.

2nd Part
Based on the examples given by the children the educator tries to generalize their opinions, for this he can use the following model:

The educator will explain to the children that gratitude is a feeling that leads to consider the favour that has been done to us or that someone wanted to do for us, and to correspond to it somehow, for example, to love the people who take care of us, who educate us is to thank these people for everything that they do for our well-being, to the doctor and the nurse who take care of us when we are ill, to the workers of the school who teach us and take care of us, to our parents.

Gratitude is demonstrated with expressions of affection, behaving well with those people, to make them feel loved by us, being quick to help them in everything that we can, and flattering them with those things that we know that they like.

3rd Part
We will tell the story:

"The Grandmother"
Once there was a grandmother who was always sad and lonely in her house. She did not know any stories, or games, or songs, or anything to entertain the children. The poor grandmother only knew how to sew and she was always bored. One day that was very cold and rainy, the grandmother heard some blows in one of her windows, it was a little bird that was freezing and was very hungry. The grandmother let him in and she gave him some breadcrumbs and milk, the bird remained all the winter with her and they got on well together.
When the summer arrived and the little bird was getting ready to go away, the grandmother burst out crying. The bird felt sorry for the grandmother who had treated him so well and to be grateful to her he stayed.
On the other hand the grandmother was very glad, and when she understood that the little bird did this for gratefulness she was aware of what it meant to be separated from the rest of his friends. For this reason she proposed to him that she would make a fountain so that he and all his friends could drink water, and that she would also give them some food.
The grateful bird went to look for his friends and they spent hours in the grandmother’s garden who was never alone again. The grandmother and her garden became famous because it was always full of little birds and people came to see them and to listen to them. The grandmother made many friends, who admired her for being grateful with the little birds. She was always glad and optimistic, and she also thanked the little birds for having changed her life.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct
YES
NO
Comments
They showed to have notions on gratitude.
 
 
 
They understood how grateful people behave.
 
 
 
They needed help to understand how grateful people behave.
 
 
 
They understood how gratitude is demonstrated.
 
 
 
They needed help to understand how gratitude is demonstrated.
They demonstrated positive emotions towards the grateful characters in the story.


ACTIVITY No 2
"A GIFT FOR A SPECIAL PERSON"

Summary of the activity: The children will make drawings, cards with flowers, decorations with materials from nature and different tokens to thank those people who take care of them and educate them with affection and care.

They could also be for the doctor and the nurse who take care of them when they are ill.

The children will choose the people who they think they must thank, they will give them the token and they will explain the reason for their gratefulness.

Objectives: To develop in the children feelings of gratitude for those people who care for and educate them.

Procedures:
• Practical actions
• Explanation
• Completion of a task

Material Resources: Cardboard, colour pencils, watercolours, gift paper, colour paper, tape, materials from nature, glue, stickers.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will explain the objective of the session, to make drawings, cards, book markers, decorations with materials from nature so that they flatter the person or the people they want to demonstrate gratitude to and they will also explain why they selected that person.

He will emphasize that there are other ways to demonstrate gratitude and that they will learn about them in other activities.

2nd Part
The educator will give several models so that the children have an idea of what they can make, he will show how to make them if it is necessary and he will make sure that every child manages to make at least one token he can give away.

Later the children helped by the educator will wrap their gifts.

3rd Part
He will ask the children who are they going to give their gift to. The educator must direct the selection of the children applying the feeling of gratitude, explaining to them that it must be those people who have made good deeds to them and that this is a way to demonstrate gratitude to them.

They will talk about what they are going to give and why. If any child does not give a correct explanation of why he selected that person, everybody will help him to make it.

Finally the children will give the tokens or gifts to the people they have selected.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct
YES
NO
Comments
They were not able to make the gift.
 
 
 
They needed help to make the gift.
 
 
 
They suitably selected the person they were going to be grateful with.
 
 
 
They needed help to select the person they were going to be grateful with.
 
 
 
They gave a correct explanation of why they had selected that person to be grateful to.
They needed help to explain why they selected the person to whom they were going to be grateful.
They felt satisfaction when giving something to the selected person.
     


ACTIVITY No 3
"A LETTER FOR GRANDPA"

Summary of the activity: The children will write as a group, letters to people in the family or friends or the personnel of the school, or of the clinic or hospital where they are taken care of, in brief to whom they consider they must thank for a good action towards them.

Objectives: To develop in the children feelings of gratitude to those people who do them some favour.

Procedures:
• Collective narration
• Group letter elaboration

Material Resources: Paper, pencils, cardboard, a computer if there is one in the classroom.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will tell the children to select the people to whom they are going to write letters of thanks, for example, the doorman, or the driver of the school bus, for all the favours that have been done to the children, and as they are so good and affectionate with the children everybody is very grateful and wants to demonstrate some gratefulness to them, for that reason they will write a letter to them and they will send bunches of flowers to them.

The educator has to situate the task: “Has somebody ever received a letter?

Later he invites them to write the letter in which the children will say what to say in it. The educator invites them to remember how to begin a letter to a loved person, if the children do not know what to say:

"Dear grandpa Manuel ":

The educator tells the children that it is necessary to ask about his health and if someone knows how to do it.

"How are you?” indicating to the children that it is always good to begin asking how he feels.

Later he adds: "Now you must say the reason why you are writing this message, remember that you must be grateful with your grandpa for his good actions towards you" "Do you remember some of those good actions?"

Later he continues: "Grandpa, as you have been so affectionate and good with us, with this letter and the flowers that we sent to you, we want to give you an affectionate message and our gratefulness for all the good things that you did for the children"

"We remember that you are always very amiable and that your first greeting and your first smile were for us".

He indicates that they must say goodbye, et cetera.

"It is by all this that we will always remember you with much love, and we invite you so that you come to see us whenever you can."

"Kisses"

The children from the early childhood center.

2nd Part
In this part of the activity the educator explains that he does not have to say what to write, but that it will be them that will write a letter to the doorman, but that he is going to write it as they do not know how to write. The educator will gather all the comments, and later he will summarize verbally what the children are saying to him, adding the details, etc.

3rd Part
Individual letters will be done by the children, but as they do not know how to write, we can suggest to them to draw something about that they want to say to the person they feel grateful to.

The educator will insist that the children make large drawings and that they introduce it in a cardboard post office box that has been prepared beforehand.


CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct
YES
NO
Comments
They were able to coordinate their ideas to write the letter.
 
 
 
They needed much help to coordinate their ideas when writing the letter.
 
 
 
They were excited with the idea to write the letter.
 
 
 
They felt satisfaction by sending the letter.
 
 
 
They made their drawing-letter with enthusiasm.


ACTIVITY No 4
"THE POSTMAN"

Summary of the activity: This is a role play on the topic: "The postman". First the educator will start an initial conversation with the children stimulating them to play the postman and asking them to give some ideas of how the game should be, later he tells them to organize the materials in the area, later the children will develop the game, and finally there will be a conversation about the game.

Objectives: To develop in the children experiences on the actions of grateful people.

Procedures:
• Game
• Conversation

Material Resources: Bag, postman’s whistle and cap, tables and chairs with paper and pencil to write letters, envelopes to put them, furniture to set up a post office, cardboard boxes to use as mailboxes.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
There will be a conversation in which the educator, will introduce the topic and will speak to them about the work of the postmen and the people who work in the post office.

The educator reminds the children of the letter they sent to grandpa Manuel, and he tells them that that letter was already sent to the post office; he will show a picture of the post office.

He will explain to the children that in this post office there are people who work classifying letters according to the addresses and that they give them to the postmen.

He adds that in the post office there are postmen who are the workers who deliver the letters to the people in their houses (Shows a picture of a postman with his bag, cap and uniform).

Later, he invites them to play the postmen, preferably outdoors, there will be several tables so that the children who wish to play this game select the necessary materials, some will be the postmen and others can sit in small tables prepared with pencil and paper to write their letters.

We will also prepare Tables and chairs with post office boxes to send our letters and a poster that says "Post office", there the children who want to play the role of the personnel of the post office will sit.

2nd Part
 The children will carry out the game, the educator will make some suggestions trying to enrich the actions of the argument, and the interrelations between the children.

3rd Part
There will be a final conversation in which the children together with the educator will evaluate how they have played.

The educator in this conversation will insist on how pleasant it is to receive letters from friends, and how this is a very pretty way to thank people for the good actions they have had with us, as we did with grandpa Manuel, grateful people write letters to express their gratitude towards those who deserve it.


CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct
YES
NO
Comments
They knew how to carry out the actions of their selected role to the end of the game.
 
 
 
They needed help to carry out the actions of the role to the end of the game.
 
 
 
There were conflicts during the game that they knew how to solve in an independent way.
 
 
 
They needed help to solve the conflicts that came up during the game.
 
 
 
Through the game they understood how grateful people can demonstrate their gratitude.


ACTIVITY No 5
"THE RED WHISTLE"

Summary of the activity: We will stage a poem that talks about the feeling of gratitude and we will stage in a table theatre.

Objectives: To bring up in the children positive emotions towards a grateful little animal.

Procedures:
• Recitation
• Repetition

Material Resources: A table theatre and two puppets painted in fine cardboard and with a stand so that they stay standing.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The children will repeat the selected poem several times until they learn it to stage it on a table theatre.

2nd Part
 The children who have been selected, stage the poem on a table theatre, for this they will use cardboard puppets, with a base so that they stay standing, the rest of the children will be watching.

We will prepare an appropriate stage for the poem. As a child recites the poem other children move the puppets.

3rd Part
Conversation on the table theatre:
The educator will ask the children if they liked the activity and what they have learned with it. He will take advantage of it to reinforce what was learned about gratitude.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct
YES
NO
Comments
They were able to coordinate their actions to stage the poem.
 
 
 
They needed help to stage the poem.
 
 
 
They knew how to explain the message learned in the poem.
 
 
 
They needed help to explain the message of the poem.
 
 
 
They felt satisfaction and joy in the activity.


ACTIVITY No 6
CRITICAL EXPERIENCE FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE BLOCK
"WHAT WOULD YOU DO?"

Summary of the activity: To end this block of activities, the educator can lead an activity to show a situation to the children and with the objective of evaluating those aspects of the block that need to be verified, or to determine to what extent they have been understood and internalized by the children. He will explain that they have to record what they say to listen to their answers later.

Objectives:
• To verify if the children have understood what gratitude is and how to express it.
• To verify if they have developed feelings of gratitude.

Procedures:
• Stories
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Cassette recorder or equipment to record the conversation.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will say to the children:

1. - If you are crying desperately because you are lost in the park and do not know how to go home and a person comes and asks to you what happened and when you tell him, he consoles you and immediately takes you to your house.
What would you do?
What would you say to him?
What would you feel for that person?
Would you quickly forget the favour or you would remember it for a long time?
Would you thank him for the favour?
How would you demonstrate gratitude to that person?

2.- Later that same person has lost his small dog in the park where you are having a nice time playing with your little friends, you are at the funniest moment of the game, but he asks you to help him. What would you do?
Do you continue playing?
Do you leave the game immediately and start looking for the small dog?
Do you pretend that you have not heard or seen it because the game is a lot of fun?
After a while do you feel sorry for the small dog and you start to look for it?
Are you a grateful person?
Why are you a grateful person?
To whom should you be grateful?
Can you tell me how grateful people are?

2nd Part
The educator tells the children that they are going to listen to what they said. He will promote a group discussion to bring in new criteria from the children regarding what was said.

Based on the answers to the questions, or any other fact or children’s comment the educator will make the following evaluation.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct
YES
NO
Comments
They have enriched the notions that they had on gratitude at the beginning of the activities of this block.
 
 
 
At the end of the block they showed to have a good development of the gratitude feeling.
 
 
 
They have only acquired some notions on gratitude.
 
 
 
They needed much help to speak about what gratitude is and how a grateful person should be.
 
 
 
They knew to whom they should be grateful and how.
They needed help to realize to whom they should be grateful and how.