Intentional Kindness

After the past two days of tattling, being mean to each other, and more unkind things than I care to type here, I had to do something.  I have a GREAT class, but when they are not with me, they (ok, three of them) are not too kind to one another. Some ugly things have been said, a little pushing, a little tattling, and I'm ready to have a class meeting.  So I did.  I told them that we are going to be kind to each other even if we are not best friends.

After school was out on Tuesday, I grabbed these library pockets that I bought because they were pretty - having NO idea what I was going to use them for. I stuck them to some black poster board. (They had adhesive strips on the back.)

 I reinforced the top edge with some clear tape.  I put each students' name on their pocket and inserted an index card with their name on it.

I hung it up at a level they can all reach and stuck cute letters saying, "Kind Words" over it.

I shared with the students that they can go get another student's index card out of their pocket and write one very kind sentence on it and go put it back.  I demonstrated some ideas for them. We discussed things from compliments on clothes to real compliments on behavior and etc...  They were SUPER excited. During "Work on Writing" today, I told them they could try it out. There was a line of about 10 kids waiting to get a card today during Daily 5.  Today was just our "try it day." Other days, they will be able to write on a card after they are finished with their morning work.  

I'm going to keep tabs on what they write and make sure they are all receiving messages on their cards.  I'll add some compliments as well.  When their index card is full, they get to take it home.  So far, I'm loving it!!!  How do you help your kids to show kindness?