The Gift of Nothing

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In The Gift of Nothing, by Patrick McDonnel, Mooch wants to give his best friend Earl a gift, but Earl has everything. After some thought, he has the idea to give him Nothing! "But in this world full of so many somethings, where can he find nothing?" After some searching, Mooch finally finds nothing when he least expects it. He fills a box with nothing and takes it to his friend's house to give to him. "There's nothing in here!" Says Earl. "Exactly, Nothing! Just me and you." And so they sit quietly and enjoy nothing together.




The children find this book hilarious. So I thought it would be interesting to give them the experience of receiving the "gift of nothing." I wrapped each child an empty jar and told them they were getting a present.

Everyone was excited. Perhaps so excited that I was a little concerned about possible disappointments.




Before they began unwrapping, the children spoke about how getting a present made them feel.
"Happy."
"Excited."
"Presents are nice."
"I like presents."

The unwrapping began in small groups so I could take pictures of everyone. To my surprise the second and third group had no less reaction than the first, although they had already watched their friends open their gifts.




"Wow! Nothing! It's a nothing bottle!"
One child's face seemed confused, another child looked hesitantly unimpressed for a moment. However, many of the children were genuinely excited.
"That was the gift of a toy. It was something, not nothing."
"I love it. I'm going to put something in here."
"I'm ready for my real present now."
"I'm going to fill it with ponies!"
"This is the best day ever!"

"It's so special. I'm going to give it to my mommy as a special surprise and she will be so happy, just like me!"
This idea seemed to stick as the other children heard it. Echoes of who they would give their bottle to and how it would make that person feel filled the space.

"I want to decorate it with tape and draw something on the bottle."
And so, we did.



After re-reading the story of "The Gift of Nothing", the children reflected on how, if their jars were to be full of nothing, then the gift had to be invisible.

But what is an invisible gift?
We started off slow with this concept, can you see and hear kisses or hugs? Could you put them in the jar?
What about friendship?
For many of the children this was all they needed to delve even deeper. Our list of ideas grew to include Love, togetherness, luck, generosity, happiness, kindness and more.



The children showed joy in giving their gifts of nothing. This week we have been asking each other what their recipient said upon receiving their jar and how it made them feel.

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