Celebrating Kindness

Thank you to Ruth Ayres for the opportunity to focus on celebrations every week! Please join us!

November 13th is World Kindness Day. I'm not sure how I've missed this since it began in 1998 by the World Kindness Movement. Better late than never, right? I decided to spend some time celebrating World Kindness Day with my students. 

We started class with our normal routine...status of the class and independent reading. During reading time, I quietly wrote sticky note compliments for each of my students and placed them on their desks. When reading was over and students read the notes, I liked watching their faces go from confused to happy to wonderment. I said, "Today is World Kindness Day and I wanted to show kindness to all of you...that's why there are notes on your desks." They nodded, smiled, and some mumbled, "Thanks." I continued, "...but then I thought of something that would make you even happier. Let's go outside for recess...RIGHT NOW!"

Time in middle school is a precious commodity, so I take my students out for recess once a week for 10-15 minutes. This extra, "just because" recess made their day! They cheered and soaked up every second of this time. It reminded me how we all have to stop and enjoy the moment!

When we came inside after our recess time, we talked about how something so small made such a difference in the day. We talked about ways we could share kindness with others. We used sticky notes and wrote notes for others in our school and spread them out. Here are some of the words of kindness spread out around the school...

Update...I confess it was hard writing about how we celebrated World Kindness Day on the same day as the attacks on Paris. I questioned it. I almost didn't share this, but instead I thought about how powerful kindness and love are. I pray that the world will be different when our kids are the ones running it.