Hello Day School Community,

On Friday morning, assistant principal Hilary Sturgis led an all school meeting focusing on the theme of gratitude. Mrs. Sturgis showed an interesting video called The Gratitude Experiment explaining the research of Dr. Robert Emmons, a professor at UC Davis. Day School students learned the following key points from this presentation:

Gratitude is an important part of giving and receiving respect.

• When you practice saying thank you, you gain respect.
• Where there is gratitude and respect, there is community and people are happier with themselves and more content with what they have.
• Gratitude attracts respect! The more you say thank you for what you already have, the more respect people have for you, and the more successful you can be!

The students had a great discussion about how they can show gratitude in school and around their community. Mrs. Sturgis helped the students to make connections to our core value of respect.

This year's Day School fundraiser also features character videos for each day of our campaign. Students travel back to the Wild West with the MindSpark kids solving a mystery with the help of their S.T.E.A.M. skills and strong character. They have to travel BACK IN TIME to the Wild West and save Dr. Shock from the outlaw Bully Malone and his No-Good Gang.

In this thrilling Western-S.T.E.A.M. theme, our students and the MindSpark kids must win six “Character Duels” to rescue Dr. Shock. Friday's character duel was gratitude vs. ingratitude. You can watch all of these videos by logging onto FunRun.com.

Be sure to ask your child what he or she learned about gratitude during our Cobra Council meeting.

Sincerely,

Chris Louis Sardella, Principal

Norman E. Day Elementary School