26 Random Acts of Kindness

Today at morning meeting, my teacher challenged the students with a “26 random acts of kindness” sheet that gave concrete examples of how students can be kind to other people. Since there are 26 days before February break, the students have the opportunity to do at least one activity a day to complete all 26. Activities as such should definitely be included in the classroom since one purpose of school is to create better citizens.

Encouraging students to think about others at an early age can lead to a healthy habit of doing kindness. Some activities on the sheet included: 1. “Invite a friend to play with you at recess,” 2. “Write a nice note to your teacher,” 3. “Hold the door for a parent or a teacher,” and 4. “Read a book to a friend for fun.” This colorful worksheet, created by someone online, is a great way to promote community and kindness in the classroom. It is straightforward and simple enough for the students to complete. Students can work on the activities at home and in school.

In addition to other activities at morning meeting, we always practice the proper way to greet someone. I realized that we must explicitly teach students to smile, look someone in the eye, say “Good Morning (name of person)”, and shake their hand. Students need to be taught how to be polite and how to greet someone properly since it is not natural. Spending a little time everyday on treating students and teachers with respect and kindness really helps change the classroom dynamic. In this classroom, all students are inclusive and kind to one another. You rarely see students fighting and rarely see any sort of drama between the girls and boys. I think this is a direct result to conversations and activities as such.