An important component of thoughtfulness is showing concern.
Every child is young and inexperienced in life, and they need all the lessons they can get it. When a child learns that thoughtfulness is not only a virtue but a practice, they will find ways to create good things and make life better for themselves and everyone else in their lives. The value of thoughtfulness comes in many forms, and teaching a child how to be thoughtful creates a healthy sense of self-esteem and well-being that will make it possible to survive lives with many ups and downs.
All you need to do is to be loving, kind, and compassionate, as well as understanding. If you teach a child about thoughtfulness, you will find more of it in yourself as well.
Tools used in the classroom to inculcate thoughtfulness are:
1. Offer your help
Guiding students when they have a problem and want others to help them.
They should also provide help to resolve situations for others students.
For Example:-
1. When the teacher gives some colouring activity to the kids, some forget
to bring their own colours. The kids who have colours willingly share their colours with them.
2. In the classroom, when some written work is given to the students. Some of them have language problems but to increase their
vocabulary. We give them new words to use in story writing, creative writing and sentence construction.
2. Believe in one another
It’s easy to assume the worst in others, but we should make conscious efforts to believe in one another, which are considered more thoughtful acts.
For example:
In circle time, we should tell moral stories to the students or stories of great personality; they learn to believe in one another through these stories.
3.Observation
To make our students understand that genuine care can only be developed by observing our surroundings, only positive care can be seen in others' attitudes.
Example: - In an empty bag, the teacher can put different objects like sandpaper, soft toys, a piece of wood, a pebble etc. Children will sit in a circle and close their eyes. They will touch and feel the object one by one, and the teacher will ask the question- Which object do you have? What is the shape of the object? How do you feel when you touch the object? This activity will enhance the ability to observe.
To be understanding towards the world around you, you need to
develop empathy.
To be understanding towards the world around you, you need to develop empathy. Empathy is a foundation for acting ethically, having good relationships of many kinds, loving well, and professional success. And it’s key to preventing bullying and many other forms of cruelty in the world around you.
The attachments are key to adopting our values and behaviour; therefore, empathizing with our children takes many forms, including tuning in to their physical and emotional needs, understanding and respecting their individual personalities.
Activity 1: Feelings Collage
This is a fun activity to try in any classroom, especially if some of your students are especially shy and might have difficulty acting out emotions in front of the class. Bring a big stack of magazines to class and give each student's art supplies: poster board or construction paper, scissors, glue sticks.
➢ Invite your students to cut pictures of people expressing any kind of feeling, and instruct them to use these images to build a “feelings collage.” Hand out markers to label each picture in their collage with a feeling word; then, take turns explaining their collages and feeling labels to the group.
➢ Encourage your students to elaborate on the details of what they noted regarding the person’s facial expression, body language, or the context of the photo or illustration.
Activity 2: Group Circle
Another good activity to encourage empathy is the Group Circle. Choose a “talking piece” is an object passed around and signals that the holder has exclusive speaking rights. Tell your students that only one person may talk at a time in the Group Circle, and everyone else must listen quietly and respectfully.
➢ First, have the students pass the talking piece. This is a good opportunity for everyone to practice holding and passing the talking piece and an opportunity for students to say a few quick words about how they are feeling or what is on their minds.
➢ Introduce a topic or ask a question that you would like the circle to respond to. However, after you have sparked the conversation, make sure to take your seat in the circle and become a member rather than a leader.
➢ The Group Circle exercise helps students relate to one another, and it can encourage students to accept and share feelings that may be difficult to talk about.
- Dolly Pharasi@JMMS, John Martyn Memorial School, Salangaon, Dehradun