Random Acts of Kindness With Little Learners

I feel very passionately about teaching my students to be kind, good, caring kids.  We talk about feelings, and how to treat others.  Last week, we completed our first Random Act of Kindness.  We started off by reading the book Heartprints by P.K. Hallinan.  I bought this book over the summer, so this was the first time I used it.  The kids really connected with the message of helping others.

Our school custodians are amazing.  They work so hard to make our school so pretty.  We drew pictures for our custodial staff and thanked them for keeping our school so clean.  It's the least we can do after the boys pee on the floor in our little bathroom.  :)  So, while I knew our head custodian was in the lunchroom, I plastered his office with our drawings.

Well, our special staff member came down to our room and peeked his head in.  He was smiling ear to ear, and he thanked us for making his day.  He said he was going to keep the pictures up all week because they made him happy.  Well, it's a week and a half later, and they're still up.

Our Random Act of Kindness didn't cost a thing, and it brightened the day of someone special to us.  We talked about how we felt when we saw how happy our head custodian was, and the kids said they wanted to smile, they were happy, and it made them feel good.  Mission accomplished.

So, I started thinking that I wanted a way to have the kids reflect on paper so we could track our Random Acts of Kindness.  My newest freebie was the result.  I thought it would be a great freebie to honor the people that lost their lives on September 11th, and spread some love in this crazy world.

There are two circle maps as well so you can brainstorm your "targets" and think of ways to make them feel good.  There is also a schedule for you to organize your "Heartprints".

Click here to download your freebie.

Character Education

I have been looking for a file on character education for a while now.  It seemed like there were parts of files that I liked, but parts that were missing.  I really wanted something the kids could interact with, and not just listen to a story about being nice or being trustworthy.  So, I took matters into my own hands, and made a unit with little readers.

I absolutely LOVE little readers (and my students do, too!).  I have little readers in each of my writing units.  All of those little readers (plus a few more) are combined to make the 30 Non-Fiction Science Readers pack.  The kids have a new book each week.  They draw the pictures to match the words, and we read them all week.  Have I mentioned how much I love them?  :)  I also made a pack of Social Studies easy readers because it's hard to find appropriate books (in length and complexity) for little learners.

Anyway, so I decided to make my character education unit with circle maps, bubble maps, anchor signs (with more than one option to make them... if you've read previous posts, you know I like options), and an easy reader.

 

 

Two different options for anchor chart signs: One that prints on colored paper, and one you can cut off the top and use the top and bottom in separate places.

 

A circle map and bubble map with different headings.

 

A paper saving, easy to copy little reader.

 

Click here to download a FREE preview with all you need to teach your students the caring character trait.

 

 

 

Please check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store for the complete unit.