Kindness In Schools
The Power of Acts of Kindness - CBS Sunday Morning |
In 2016 The KIS committee, with the amazing help of sponsor and SedonaKind member Ruti Lovitt, brought a national speaker to town during Sedona Kindness Day(s). His name is Brian Williams of Think Kindness, and he led a presentation at West Sedona, Big Park, and Mountain View Schools called "5,000 Acts of Kindness in 15 Days". The children, parents and teachers were all inspired to take up the challenge, and together, do the 5,000 acts in just 15 days.
This has been a successful program all around the country, and SedonaKind was so excited to bring it here to Sedona. Because of the success of this program in 2017 SedonaKind partnered with Rotary to bring the ThinkKindness assemblies to ALL Sedona Area Schools as well as Mountain View. You can read all about the 2017 assemblies on our Sedona Kindness week 2017 Page.
This has been a successful program all around the country, and SedonaKind was so excited to bring it here to Sedona. Because of the success of this program in 2017 SedonaKind partnered with Rotary to bring the ThinkKindness assemblies to ALL Sedona Area Schools as well as Mountain View. You can read all about the 2017 assemblies on our Sedona Kindness week 2017 Page.
KIS headed into the classrooms at West Sedona School on September 28th!
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Constance Loef and Pam Hollenbach, Kari Lee Hertzberg and Gloria Woody came well-prepared to spread our message of Kindness with books to read and activities to get the students up and out of their chairs, desks and even their classrooms. After spending the entire summer planning for going into the classrooms we had no idea that we would be doing six classes in one morning, BUT we are nothing if NOT intrepid KIS women so off we headed.
Constance and Pam had an enchanting book, The Grouchy Ladybug, for the two 1st grade classes and a wonderful activity to accompany the book. The kids constructed their own ladybugs from egg cartons! The second grade discussed ladybugs in a more scientific approach. The grand finale was for all three classes to go outside where Constance and Pam had live ladybugs for all the kids to examine and let them touch. You can imagine how much fun their experience was!
Gloria read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? to the two first grade classes as well as the Montessori K/1st/2nd class and Kari Lee followed up with an activity which got the students up and out of their seats in order to go around and ‘fill’ their classmates buckets with written phrases of kindness; then the students returned and were really touched to see all the nice things that had ‘filled their bucket’ which proved that everybody needs to be told how much they are appreciated on a daily basis.
What did WE (the two teams) learn after OUR first day at school? First, we were incredibly encouraged by how much kindness is already being taught in WSS! We saw posters and we heard SO many students who would give fabulous answers when asked “What could you say to fill somebody’s bucket?” and these were just the 1st graders! Second, the teachers were happy and welcoming to have us and are looking forward to our once-a-month appearances!
In conclusion, while it may have seemed daunting at first, you must remember that the students REALLY are just little people who thought that we were all pretty darn cool…so wouldn’t you like to join us?!
Contact Gloria if you would like to join this wonderful effort GloriaWoody58@gmail.com
Constance and Pam had an enchanting book, The Grouchy Ladybug, for the two 1st grade classes and a wonderful activity to accompany the book. The kids constructed their own ladybugs from egg cartons! The second grade discussed ladybugs in a more scientific approach. The grand finale was for all three classes to go outside where Constance and Pam had live ladybugs for all the kids to examine and let them touch. You can imagine how much fun their experience was!
Gloria read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? to the two first grade classes as well as the Montessori K/1st/2nd class and Kari Lee followed up with an activity which got the students up and out of their seats in order to go around and ‘fill’ their classmates buckets with written phrases of kindness; then the students returned and were really touched to see all the nice things that had ‘filled their bucket’ which proved that everybody needs to be told how much they are appreciated on a daily basis.
What did WE (the two teams) learn after OUR first day at school? First, we were incredibly encouraged by how much kindness is already being taught in WSS! We saw posters and we heard SO many students who would give fabulous answers when asked “What could you say to fill somebody’s bucket?” and these were just the 1st graders! Second, the teachers were happy and welcoming to have us and are looking forward to our once-a-month appearances!
In conclusion, while it may have seemed daunting at first, you must remember that the students REALLY are just little people who thought that we were all pretty darn cool…so wouldn’t you like to join us?!
Contact Gloria if you would like to join this wonderful effort GloriaWoody58@gmail.com
We hope to continue to encourage and support the schools, the teachers, parents, and of course the children in fostering and recognizing acts of kindness every day in our schools, and to help create a more compassionate and considerate environment in the classrooms and on the playgrounds. We've designed and ordered "kindness bracelets" to be given out in the fall, with " SedonaKind " and the word "Kindness" in 5 languages on the band. The hope is that the kids ( or anyone!) will wear their bracelet on their right wrist, and when they do or observe an act of kindness they transfer it to their left wrist. The KIS committee has so many ideas to offer the schools, from interactive activities, art projects, reading and telling stories of kindness, to even perhaps creating a book on kindness, with artwork and stories by the children themselves. The whole idea is to be there for the teachers and the children, in any way that we can. An unknown author has said that "Kindness is the greatest wisdom", so taking our message to our schools seems a perfect fit.
