100 Acts of Kindness

Happy Wednesday! We're over halfway to Friday! This was my first week back at school and it's fun to be back with this class. Monday morning the first boy who came in the room Before I tell this story you need to know that I have a boy in my class (let's call him El) who is funny, outgoing, and very dramatic! I have another student (let's call him Eq) who is also very expressive. So, Monday morning El was the first one in the room. He walked in and proclaimed (the best word I can think of to describe it), "I'm so glad to be back here! I missed this room!" The other boy, Eq, came in a minute later, threw himself across the table and said, "I'm so glad to be in here!" What a way to start the day!

I told both boys I was happy they like school so much. About 15 minutes later kids went to sit on the rug. El was the first one there. He laid down on his square on the rug and said, "I missed this rug!" My thought, "Oh brother! Really? You missed the rug?" I didn't say anything and the dramatics didn't continue, but... what a group this is. They have so much personality that they could give some away and still have plenty. I enjoyed my time off, but I missed how funny they are too. Hopefully you've had a good week or two back as well.

We're learning about Martin Luther King, Jr. this week. We will try the directed drawing from Mrs. Miner's Monkey Business tomorrow. Can't wait to see how they come out! 

On Tuesday I'll start the project Living the Dream: 100 Acts of Kindness that I found on readwritethink.org. The project challenges kids to complete 100 acts of kindness between Martin Luther King day and Valentine's day. I found this book to kick it all off. It's called Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler.

 

It's about a teacher whose students are acting up in class. She challenges them to go home and perform 5 acts of kindness for their families and to share them at show-and-tell the next day. After those students share, other members of the class want to perform acts of kindness too so Mrs. Ruler turns it into a class project. The book is fun and the illustrations are very cute. The jacket cover says the class is kindergarten, but the book never refers to the age of the class.

I'll send a letter home explaining to parents how the project works and then keep track of the students 100 acts of kindness on this poster.

There are 5 pages all together that I'll tape on my cabinet door just inside the classroom. I also made a first page that just says 100 Days of School and one that just has 100 in case you want the poster for another purpose. Just click on the picture to grab it. But please leave a comment if you do. It's nice to hear from you.
The complete project can be found here and the resources include a one-page chart you can use to record the acts on. I just wanted a cuter one that I could write on better.

Let me know if you try this with your class. I'd love to hear how it goes!

I also wanted to share a resource I won from Jessica over at Tales of a First Grade Teacher. I can't wait to use it with my class! I'll print it tonight. It's full of arctic activities that fit perfectly with what we're doing right now- place value, graphing, and fact families, a long i/short I picture sort that's super for my reading groups, and a cvcv game that's perfect for my highest readers. There are more activities you might enjoy too. Please stop by and visit Jessica's fabulous blog and store!

Thanks, Jessica!

What are your favorite Martin Luther King activities?