Kindness Week

It's been a rough one in Vegas this past week.

However, it was also kindness week.

Here were some of our activities:

We made a kindness chain.  I modeled a sentence stem:

 
Gave them the time and space to discuss kindness:

Then hung it outside our door.

We took those same ideas to create leaves, which went on our school kindness tree:

(Our art teacher made this because she's amazing.)

We read:

We made:

They wrote compliments to one another to be bucket fillers:

I took home enough to make each kid a compliment from me:

We dedicated an entire bulletin board to our bucket filling:

It will stay up for about a month.

We watched this {Respect Rap} and made posters for Friday's respect march and pep assembly.

We all wore blue on Friday.  Not only did it symbolize our grief over the last weekend's events, it also serves as a stand up to bullies color and helped our school feel unified.  This was a district wide spirit day.

Random Acts of Kindness

Rule 11: 

Surprise others by performing random acts of kindness.  Go out of your way to do something surprisingly kind and generous for someone at least once a month.

(Ron Clark's Essential 55)

My skills are not found in the kitchen, so baking goods for others is out of the question. I'd rather not poison loved ones.  That kind of defeats the whole random acts of kindness plan.  Instead, I'd rather spend my time creating something.

The premise is simple. With a $20 budget, I'll select one person each month to surprise with some sort of craft project.  I won't just be selecting my friends but rather try to truly tune into all the events at school.  I've got the first three planned out and a few other possibilities swirling around my brain.

August's candidate: Mrs. A

Mrs. A works at my school site but isn't a classroom teacher.  She's our speech pathologist and doesn't always feel like part of a team.  It's got to be hard essentially being a one person department.  Her oldest is starting kindergarten (at our school) and a close work wife abruptly retired at the end of the school year for a continent move.  Plus she's a super awesome person.

She likes lady bugs, so I decided to make a wreath incorporating one.  To keep within my self-imposed budget, I went with a smaller sized frame and waited until burlap was on sale.

The supplies:

Wire frame 

1 roll of tan wired burlap (it holds the shape better) 

2 mini rolls of patterned burlap (chevron maroon and black)

1 wooden lady bug

Floral wire

hot glue gun 

The crafting itself was rather quick because of the size, my procrastination (I don't want to label any more books right now), and that I've done a good dozen of these wreaths by now. 

I also included a small note explaining the gift.

 

I made the base of solid burlap first and then wove in the patterned parts.  I used a hot glue gun to attach the lady bug and let the wreath sit overnight.

 

I'll be keying into her room this morning and leaving it on her desk. I'm fairly certain she'll be in today but all teachers in our district must report back tomorrow.  

What small gestures can you do to spread #rule11?

Wrinkled Hearts

While this lesson is a tad juvenile for my fifth graders, our amazing counselor did a very similar one with kindergarten:

We are a be kind school and we are continually emphasizing be kind rather than glorifying bullying.  Obviously we have a firm anti-bullying policy but we are trying to spotlight the positive behavior choices of students rather than continually talking about bullies.  Many of our students crave adult attention, so we'd rather they act correctly than act up to capture our focus.

(To learn more about the Be Kind program, please visit their website)

The challenge is to be extra kind to others on the fifth of every month.  Go forth and spread good karma :)

Character Traits Cards

We've been doing a lot of work with comparing and contrasting in our small groups.

I've been using character trait cards to help my students build their vocabulary.  Instead of using "dead words," they are focusing on that juicy vocabulary when describing their characters.

I gave them a pack of trait cards and had them discuss as a group which descriptions would align with the characters in their small group novels.  They also had to justify to me why they'd use those specific character traits.

From there, they added the words to their individual character maps:

Then combined their thinking on their group chart:

Due to space, I've been sending them into the hallway to work.  I've got the door propped open and I can see them at all times, so that's not a safety concern.  That way they can talk in a whisper (or as much of a whisper as excited ten year-olds can manage) and not disrupt those students who are silently reading.

(Silently reading and going back to the text for evidence? Score!)

I had another teacher listen in on them while she was observing a classroom and I loved her positive feedback.  Not only was my Harry Potter group on task the entire time (which is a feat within itself!) but they were using those descriptive words to compliment one another.  

She specifically remembered: " (Student's name), you are just as smart as Hermione!"

So cute.

I'm proud of them for really trying to be kind to one another, even when they don't think any teacher is watching.  Well done fifth graders!

Peace Week Challenge One

It's Peace Week at our school and our awesome counselor posted her first challenge!

Students had to brainstorm a list of all the ways they could be kind to others in the upcoming week.

Here's our list:

I'm going to really focus on "catching" kids being kind and giving them that positive reinforcement!

Friend Bench

This upcoming week is Peace Week at my elementary school in honor of Dr. King.  The counselor does an awesome job at preparing grade-level specific and appropriate lessons while still delivering the same anti-bullying message.

We are a Be Kind school and I think most of our students have done a wonderful job embracing the motto of "be kind".  I love "catching kids being kind" and acknowledging them for the simplest, selfless acts.

I saw another school was doing this:

If a student is lonely and in need of a friend, he or she heads to the bench.  Other students then go over and invite him or her to play with them.  What a great way to encourage friendship!

And I'd love to implement something at our school!  I know metal will get extremely hot during the summer months, so that is a concern.  It'd be great if student council could paint the bench.  Perhaps it could be a parting gift from this year's fifth graders?

I think it's definitely worth looking into :)

random acts of kindness

It's been a frustrating week.

It's hard to maintain a positive attitude when things keep getting broken or stolen.  It's getting expensive to replace hard cover books and most recently, my personal laminator.  I understand that accidents happen, but I'd just love if my students listened more when I told them not touch things and gave explicit instructions.  It's not a secret that teachers are underpaid and the cost of supplies is rising :(

However, I'm trying really hard to focus on the small, positive moments.

We had an awesome training by our counselor on 3 words.  We had to pick 3 words and mine were "appreciate the positive".  That's what I'm trying to do!

(Those of you at my school site, I promise I am trying...even though I may be grumpy...)

So here is my positive note:

One of my students was out last week because he had a family vacation in Washington.  I appreciate the family scheduling the trip around our weird fall break (staff developoment and Nevada day) so the student only missed one day of school--and a field trip day at that.  

This student is in RTI, very quiet, frequently wiggly and needs a lot of reminders to be on task.  I'm inclusion and have been for years, so I'm used to this behavior.  Heck, I'm not able to sit still for more than twenty minutes without trying to multi-task, so I can't hold it against them.

He was back on Monday and surprised me with this magnet:

It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but my awesome magnet is mostly pink and sparkly :)

Clearly he understands my preferences in life!  If only it was polka dotted...