Covid 19 - An 'Attitude of Gratitude'

Level 4

What an incredible few months we’ve experienced during Covid 19 lockdown; an unprecidented time in global history.  

For many this has been a time of mixed emotions as lived experiences changed to one of isolation and social distancing from extended family, friends, colleagues and the wider world outside our front gates.

Although isolated from each other physically, it was important for us to have opportunities for connection with each other and this occured for us through phone calls and email. 

Teachers enjoyed opportunities to stay connected with children and whanau in this way. 

What was most heartening, were the ways in which families embraced this new unhurried                      time, and focused on and enjoyed just being together as a family.  

 Overwhelmingly, one of the things we've learnt during this lockdown time, is the power of gratitude and the role this can play in our wellbeing. 

 Many of our shared conversations focused on looking for the positives in the situation as a way of helping us get through. 

An Attitude of Gratitude 

Gratitude is being thankful for the things that are already in our life and appreciating them. 

 Appreciating good experiences, building strong relationships and focusing energy on the positives in life, all help improve our overall health and wellbeing.

  

Gratitude enables us to deal with adversity, and feel more positive emotions.

Level 2 

Newly emerged from lockdown and now at Level 2...what does this mean for us?  Will life ever be the same?  Do we want it to be the same?  What happens next? 

 So many thoughts, so many emotions!

As we transition back into normality and navigate our 'new normal', there are a range of feelings that will crop up for us and this is a perfect time to re-focus our attention towards an attitude of gratitude. 

Research shows that regularly writing down what we're thankful for:

· evokes positive feelings and emotions

· reminds us of all the things and people who contribute to our lives

· helps build appreciation, empathy and kindness (sparklers.org.nz)

Back to play!

A play day together at last...our hearts were full!  We had waited so long and we were very happy to be back together again that's for sure! 

So many things to be grateful for and we wanted to provide children an opportunity to work through what they had missed most and what they were feeling gratitude for.

To spark things off we invited children to contribute their ideas through art and conversation... 

What did you miss most when you were away?

"I missed the swings"

"My friends"

"Playing with my friends just because I like them"

"Playing with my friends and playing on the swings"

"I missed the swings and the missed the monkey bars and I missed climbing the tree"

"I think I really missed kindy and playing with my friends"

"Everything...I missed the kindy and the children"

"I missed you...my Rowan and Janet and Sandy, and Wendy and Tina and Lauren...I missed everyone and all the teachers"

"I missed running and like running real fast"

"I missed my friends at kindy"

"Going down the slide"

"All the people and everyone"

"I missed all of the teachers.  I just wanted to play on the slide and the whole kindy cause I just missed it so much"

"Kindy...going in the sandpit"

"Playing with all my kindy friends"

Overwhelmingly children expressed that it was their kindy friends that they had missed the most and were grateful for...

Heartfelt responses that we quickly realized were best captured in a selfie or two...  

  

Love, care, humanity and beauty...oh and lets not forget joy, pure joy!

We have a lot to be grateful for!

Possibilities for learning...where to next?

As we keenly await the announcement of Level 1, our hope for the future burns bright.

Our kindergarten whānau responded to this question...

What the world needs now is...

Kindness, hope, empathy, thoughtfulness, love, family, quality time, acceptence, understanding...to reconnect with nature, to look after our Mother Earth, to play more, peace, whānau, aroha, compassion, more happiness,  to slow down and to enjoy rainbows!

(Ngā wawata o te whānau,

Aspirations of family 

Bream Bay Kindergarten, 

2020)

"When we go back to a normal, I hope it's not the old normal.  See beauty everywhere, and engage with the beauty, and most of all in your fellow humanity, and lets love each other in the experience of each others beauty, to realize a much different future." (Dr Zach Bush, 2020).

It's so good to be back!!

Mauri ora,

Tania