Susanna has been kind enough to write an amazing post for you today! xo Elizabeth.
Hello everyone! I’m Susanna from over at Whimsy Workshop and I’m so happy to be invited to guest blog for Elizabeth today!
I still have a few weeks to teach, so while many of you are enjoying the beach, I’m often still waking up at 2 am thinking things like: “What if we made a giant mural? No, too big for my little ones. ….But what if we chopped it all up and everyone did just one piece? ….No, they’d get too mixed up…But what if there were numbers on the back so they knew how to put it together again? hmm……”
I’m sure you can relate to this constant stream of problems to solve! (We DID do the giant mural and we DID use numbers to put it back together – you can read about it here!)
Today I’m going to talk to you about creating a culture of kindness and empathy in your classroom, and why it’s so important.
Of course we want kids to be kind in general, but why does it really matter so much in a classroom? Well, it’s sort of like the chain reaction described in the “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” story.
If students don’t feel empathy, they will have difficulty with conflict resolution. If they can’t resolve conflict, you’ll spend all day mediating disagreements. If you spend all your time on disagreements, you won’t have the time or energy to teach effective lessons, and students won’t complete those lessons because they’ll be too busy arguing, crying, tattling… I’m sure you know exactly what I mean!
This year I had the most challenging group of students I’ve had in 20 years. I used not just one, but many different strategies and programs to help them stay on track! (You can see all of my classroom management systems here if you’re struggling!) However, one of the most effective things I found was to create a classroom where the students feel value in kindness, and in contributing to a positive environment. Because of this belief, I usually start off the school year with a “Random Acts of Kindness” unit using the freebie I brought for you at the end of this post.
Here are a few things you can do to build an environment of kindness in your class:
1. Read stories that promote kindness, such as “Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed” by Emily Pearson. Here’s a link to part of the story on youtube.
2. Read “Have You Filled A Bucket Today“by Carol McCloud. In our class “bucket filling” has become common language that we all understand.
There’s even a song about filling buckets on youtube.
3. During writing time with your class, have students write a “Happy Note” to the special helper of the day. Students drop their note into the Happy Bucket.
4. Start each morning with a Friendship Circle, where students sit in a circle and give a compliment to the person sitting to the right, and that person says “Thank you” until you’ve gone all the way around. The last person gets to say something nice to the teacher! One of my favorites was when a student had to give me a compliment, and he took some time to look at me up and down, and then finally said, “I like how you smell like strawberry jam.” Turns out it was my strawberry shampoo!
5. If your special helper takes your attendance to the office, decide as a class on a compliment to give the secretary. We love to do this each day, and we wait for the student to get back so we can hear what the secretary’s reaction was. My favorite one recently was a little boy who told the secretary “I just love the way your hair is all grey and white and just puffy on the sides.” When he got back to class and we asked about her reaction to such a nice compliment, the student said, “She just thanked me and turned around, and I saw her shoulders shaking, so I guess she really liked it.”
6. My freebie for you today is a Random Acts of Kindness class book project.
It won’t take any extra work on your part, but will ensure that parents of your students know how much you value kindness so they can reinforce this at home. Each student will get to take home a blank template to complete at home. Together with family members, they will write about an act of kindness that they experienced, or even just one that they have heard about. If your students aren’t writing yet, it’s okay for parents to scribe. (It’s not really a writing lesson, its about sharing ideas. However, for older students this could be a full writing and editing project!) When the pages are returned to school, read each one and then bind the pages into a class book. I sometimes display the pages in the hallway first, so that the school can learn what we are doing. How great would this be as a school-wide project?
Click on the images to download your free writing template, book cover and parent letter!
I hope these ideas help you out with creating a classroom of kindness! You never know how far your small acts of kindness will reach!
I’d love to hear your comments or other ideas for fostering kindness and empathy in your classroom!
I can be reached over at Whimsy Workshop, on Facebook, at my Teachers Pay Teachers Store, or through email at whimsyworkshopcreations@gmail.com.
I look forward to hearing from you!
A big thank you to Elizabeth for inviting me to visit her blog and make some new friends!
