To kick off Thanksgiving break, the Palo Alto High School Associated Student Body collaborates with the Wellness Center to bring the spirit of gratitude to campus by hosting a Thankfulness Week throughout the week at lunch on the Quad.
According to ASB Social Commissioner Jessica Wong, the activities are not only meant to encourage students to show gratitude, but to also give students and teachers a change to destress.
“Hand turkeys, slime-making and just other fun activities for students are some ways for them to take a quick little break from academic work,” Wong said.
Each day featured an activity designed to engage the school community in creative and meaningful ways. Here’s the recap:
Monday: thankfulness notes
On Monday, students and teachers could write something they’re thankful for and stick it on an orange poster near the ASB classroom at lunch.
Nathan Lee, ASB Wellness and Diversity Commissioner, said that the card-making activity was a small and easy way to express gratitude.
“We have turkey-shaped cards that you can give to your friends or someone that you care about to let them know that you’re thankful for them,” Lee said. “It’s about spreading inclusion and thankfulness.”
Tuesday: slime-making
On Tuesday, students participated in a slime-making activity on the Quad. Each table had different fall-colored dyes that represented what student might be grateful such as friends, family or pets. Emily Tang, junior class vice president, said the purpose of the event was for students to reflect and show gratitude.
“Each color represents a different thing that you’re grateful for,” Tang said. “So, whether that be your friends, family or pets, there’s a color that corresponds to your slime which shows what you’re thankful for.”
According to junior Jerry Yan, the slime-making activity was a fun way for him to express thankfulness and also a way to alleviate stress.
“Thankfulness is very important because I believe gratitude is one of the best ways for relieving stress, which seems true because I feel less stressed as of right now making this slime,” Yan said.
Wednesday: faculty appreciation cards
The festivities continued Wednesday where students share their appreciation for faculty members by writing appreciation notes on the Quad.
Sophomore Tiam Maurstad said he thinks it’s important to be thankful for teachers and friends.
“I think it’s important to be thankful for others and the opportunities you get because if you’re not thankful, you won’t fully understand the significance of things.” Maurstad said.
Thursday: hand-turkeys
Today, students had the chance to get a sweet treat by building a ‘turkey’ with gloves, googly eyes, candy corn and popcorn.
According to Wong, ASB has been planning this week’s activities for a while.
“We’ve been planning with wellness for a couple of weeks now and we decided to base this week on last years and kind of undergo the same events,” Wong said. “A lot of students want to destress so we decided to make a lot of activities that would help them do that.”
There are no Thankfulness activities on Friday.
