Acts of Kindness

This month in my classroom we have been working on acts of kindness.  Maybe it is the cold, lack of sunshine and outside recess, who knows, but I have been noticing a lot of bickering, name calling, pinching, poking, snatching, etc. amongst my kiddies.  One afternoon I stopped a math lesson and said "That's. It."  I had a pack of red heart doilies handy and a window that needed redecorating anyway (gingerbread men in February, anyone?) so I called everyone to the rug and told them it made me sad to hear some people being unkind to their friends.  I told them I would be looking for kind words and kind actions in our classroom so that I could write it down and post it on our "Acts of Kindness" window.  I told them we could see how many we could fill our window with before our class Valentine party.  No prize, no rewards, just a little recognition of some of the nice things going on in our classroom.

Enter the scene where kids fall all over each other to pick something up or walk over ten other kids on the carpet to tie someone's shoe and look up and ask if I see them.  Or fill me in on all the nice things they did for one another at lunch or gym.  

Sigh.  Time for a whole-class clarification: I had to "catch" them doing something good.  That they couldn't just do it because they wanted me to see. 

We did get a few hearts on our window and I've decided to keep it going throughout the month of February.  I love being able to watch and surprise kids with "So and so just helped so and so sign up for lunch.  It was so nice I think I am going to have to put a heart on our window."  It's allowed us to at least have lots of conversations about the difference between angry and kind voices, how to appropriately handle conflicts, and has allowed me lots of opportunities to recognize what they SHOULD be doing instead of what they SHOULD NOT be doing.  Sometimes we teachers need to remember to stay positive, too, especially when we, like our kids, are cold and tired of indoor recess and snow. :)