Kindness Campaigns are Cool!
After ten years of teaching, the one thing I have done consistently year after year is to help kids identify as "Kind Kids". I have found that teaching kids about kindness, helping them to be successful at being kind, and by holding them accountable for kindness has been instrumental in building a strong community of learners that are supportive, tolerant, and they are able to navigate friendships with greater empathy. It is not uncommon to hear me say, "Try that again with a kind heart, kind words and/or kind face." In my classroom, I want to help kids realize that kindness is not just in words, but in our actions. The Kindness Tree Activity is a fun way to build the momentum for spreading kindness. This year, I kicked off a 30-Day Kindness Challenge and asked one student to manage our daily goal and record it on a sticky note. I also invited students to design and construct a Kindness Tree for our door. I find the more that students are involved in the proc...