Students also did a mindfulness exercise when they envisioned the hot chocolate, taking deep breaths, and envisioning things that bring them joy. After we walked through this exercise, students wrote down four different things in their lives that bring them joy. We discussed how paying attention, or being mindful, to these things that bring us joy improve our mood and can help us appreciate all that we have to be grateful for. Students glued these "marshmallows" to a "cup of joy" and will be bringing them home.
Because students did such a great job of imagining hot chocolate, I surprised them with an actual cup... many had mentioned during the exercise that they thought they could really smell the hot chocolate in the room - turns out, they were right!!
