After reading aloud The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, I gave each student three circles to write their New Year wishes: A wish for me. A wish for my family. A wish for the world.
The story is about a little girl who has no home because she's run away from her daddy who is very mean to her. She has bare feet and wears only a nightgown. She is starving and very, very cold. With only a few matchsticks to light for warmth, she reflects on the things that make her happy in the world. She is found the next morning, which happens to be New Year's Day, with her knees pulled up to her chest and a smile on her face, lifeless and frozen.
As you can imagine, the students were stunned when the little girl dies because stories at their age don't involve death. I warned the students ahead of time that the story was quite serious and that I had even known some children and teachers (myself included) to cry. We focused our reflective discussion on the difference between needs and wants. The children all agreed that their recent Christmas gifts were mostly things they wanted. I asked them to consider needs when thinking about their New Year's wishes for themselves, their family, and the world. I was blown away by some of their sweet wishes:
"I wish for my mom to have a job."
"I wish for me and my brother and sisters to stop fighting."
"I wish for more food."
"I wish for my family to have money."
"I wish their were no poor people."
"I wish for a pillow."
"I wish my dad could be safe at work."
"I wish sick people could have medicine."
"I wish I could be better at Math."
The kids had fun trying say Happy New Year in many different languages!
This was something we created impromptu while reviewing rules and procedures during our Morning Meeting of our first day back. It has become a daily (sometimes hourly) reminder that is easy to remember!
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