Next week is Random Acts of Kindness Week and here at Kipling we are getting ready. I am very thankful to our first grade teachers Mrs. Comitor, Mrs. Friedlander, Mrs. Winter, and Mrs. Cacioppo for heading this effort.

Each morning next week there will be a special announcement (made by students) about some topic or thought on kindness. The topic for Monday is on what an act of kindness looks like. Here is Monday’s announcement as well as the topics for the rest of the week.

Monday:
This week is National Random Acts of Kindness week. We perform Random Acts of Kindness when we go beyond what is expected of us and reach out to help another person. There are three simple steps to performing a Random Act of Kindness.
1. The first step is to find out what another person needs. For example, Sally has her hands full and she needs to open the door to get to her class.
2. The second step is to think about how you would feel if you had that need. You might feel frustrated if your hands were full and you could not easily open the door by yourself.
3. The final step to performing a Random Act of Kindness is to offer your help. Hold the door open and let Sally enter.
There are hundreds of ways to show someone that you care. This week, look for opportunities to show that you care by performing Random Acts of Kindness.

Tuesday: Kindness and Empathy
Wednesday: Showing Appreciation
Thursday: Making and Keeping Friends
Friday: Passing Kindness On

We are using the sheet below and challenging students to check off all of the boxes by the end of the week. Of course there are hundreds of other ways to do this and we encourage students to think beyond just the ones on this sheet. These help provide guidance to students by encouraging acts and taking opportunities that often occur in school.

In addition to this we have put up a large poster on main street. We want to encourage our students to fill this poster up with their acts of kindness throughout the week.

Our main hope is that this helps our students to see how easy and rewarding it is to do kind acts so that it will extend beyond just next week. This goes along very well with the themes we will be talking about with students when we implement the Leader in Me program. Leadership is not a title or a position rather it is a choice that people make everyday. Anyone can influence others in a positive way by doing small acts. That includes adults as well. A couple of weeks ago I shared with the staff this excellent video from Drew Dudley on creating what he calls “Lollipop Moments”. I am happy to share it with you. We want all of our students to learn that they can have huge positive impacts on the lives of others. Kindness, like leadership, is a choice – not a disposition.