Happy Valentine’s Day!

I thought today would be a great time to tell you about how my 4th grade students spread some love and joy recently through a kindness challenge ❤

A few weeks ago, I presented a lesson to all 4th grade classes on the differences between meanness and bullying and how to deal with each. I used a modified version of this activity from The Handy School Counselor {the one where a student holds a bucket as the counselor fills it with rocks}. At the end of my lesson, we talked about how the only weapon we have against meanness is KINDNESS, and I gave these students a challenge.

Their challenge was to show kindness to at least 6 different people in 2 days. At least 4 of the 6 had to be students at our school, and they couldn’t choose their friends. Anyone who gave me their list of kind acts got candy, and if they had more than 6, they also got stickers. I wasn’t sure if any students would actually turn in their kindness lists, but…

…I was blown away by the response I got! Almost every child in the 4th grade {about 60 students} completed this challenge, and many did more than 6 acts of kindness.

One student even gave me a composition notebook with the 40 acts of kindness she completed in the 2 days 🙂

The students were so excited about this challenge, and I think it was a great way to show them how good it feels to do kind things for other people. I hope this was a good starting point for getting rid of some of the mean behaviors in my school!