When the leaves begin to fall, the cozy sweaters come out of the closet, and the smells of apple cider and pumpkin spice begin to fill the air… this time of year reminds us all to reflect on the things in our lives that we are thankful for.
Footprints Dance Centre keeps our 3 core values of community, enjoyment, and technique at the forefront of everything that we do. In an effort to help build community and enjoyment, each and every class took a moment out of their schedule this fall for the teacher to lead an important exercise in gratitude. We prepared each class with a supply of blank paper leaves and/or pumpkins and coloured markers. Teachers had all of their dancers sit in a circle, and they asked each dancer to take a moment to think about what they were grateful for. Each dancer had a turn to share their thoughts with their classmates, then they would then write down what they were thankful for on their paper leaf/pumpkin.
After the exercise was complete, we compiled all of our paper leaves and pumpkins, and displayed them in a “Grateful Pumpkin Patch” on our shoe room wall. Our families love being greeted with a full wall of cute and thoughtful little pumpkins and leaves, reminding us all to stop and take a moment of gratitude for the beauty right in front of us that we all too often don’t see.
Happy Thanksgiving!
