Read & Tried... Kindness Lesson & Activity

In continuation of our Random Acts of Kindness Lessons, counselor intern Kelly and I decided to continue kindness/getting along with others lessons with our friends in 1st grade.  We used the idea that school counselor Emily shared on the School Counselor Blog Spotlight.  We read the (fabulous) Have You Filled A Bucket Today book by Carol McCloud, which I love reading.

Reading "Have You Filled A Bucket Today"

We also showed a cute and fun song video clip I found on Youtube to reiterate being a "bucket filler".

Click here to view the video

We sat in a circle (I had to make a mental note to wear pants since I LOVE skirts), where we used a ball of yarn to make a "web of kindness", where each student gives a compliment to a classmate, while tossing and holding on to the yarn being passed around (hence the web).  As Emily shared, the students felt so proud to give and receive compliments.  For our class visits, I assigned everyone a person to give a compliment to.  I typed the student's names on an Avery address labels template, then cut the names out which I put in a cup and let them pick out of.  If they happened to draw their own name, they just picked another name.  That way nobody had that "last picked" feeling.

Names

Names cut out and about to be put in a cup.

Giving directions on our web of kindness

Our web...next time I'll use a brighter color of yarn, it's hard to see in this picture.  

I was amazed how well the students sat quietly and held on to their string as others gave compliments. I was extra excited seeing the smiles, cheers and head nods as students received compliments from their classmates. This was a lesson that I read about, tried and loved.  Thanks Emily for sharing!

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