Random Acts of Kindness Week 2013

Next Week (February 11-15) is Random Acts of Kindness Week at Lee Elementary.  During my guidance lessons we will be exploring kind acts we can do to improve our relationships with others and our community.



In the upper grades we watched the following film entitled "22 Random Acts of Kindness."  We discussed the different types of kind acts performed and who benefited from them.  We also reflected on if the deed cost money and if they were easy/hard to do.

This video was filmed in Islamabad, Pakistan.

I explained the idea of "Pay it Forward."  For each kind act we do for others, they pass another kind act along.  And so on, and so forth, until our whole world is positively affected by the way we treat each other.

Finally, I gave them a TOP SECRET mission (inspired by the Fickle Pickle).  For Random Acts of Kindness Week they are required to perform random acts of service without any of the recipients knowing they are being served.  They planned out who their targets (those who will be served) and decided on kind acts to perform for them.  Their plans were sealed in an envelope to be opened at the start of Random Acts of Kindness Week.

In the younger grades we read Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli.  This story follows Mr. Hatch who has a routined life and no friends.  One day he receives a package from a secret admirer.  Knowing that somebody loves him, he decides to smile and make new friends.  He performs many acts of kindness towards others in his town.  An unexpected twist helps him see how important he really is to others.

The challenge for our second grade students is to complete as many Random Acts of Kindness as they can in one week.  Each student was given a bingo sheet (inspired by Wise Guys) to record the tasks they completed.  If students can black-out their bingo board they will receive a special kindness button from me.

The challenge for our first grade students was to brainstorm different kind acts or people they would like to help, then add their ideas to sprinkles on their kindness cupcake.  As each kind act was completed, they would color in the sprinkle.  By the end of the week they could chart their progress by seeing how many of the 11 sprinkles were colored in.