100 Days of School= 100 Kindnesses

Image 34/ 365: Honoring kindness 100 different ways.

Image 35/365: Kindness comes in many shapes and forms!

In honor of surviving reaching 100 days of school, I thought it would be nice to have my 3rd graders each write one or two ways they could be kind as a writing/ thinking warm-up during our literacy block. My kids came up with some good ideas like sharing pencils, erasers, shoes (?), and paper. Other ideas were things that they could do for others like get medicine, take care of baby sisters/ brothers, smile, say "good morning" to others, make them laugh, wash someone's car, or even take someone's dog for a walk. Some offered to help their siblings with homework, while others promised to do their homework everyday--a kindness to their teachers, I suppose? In all, it was a nice way to start the day, thinking about things that we can do to impact those around us in a positive way.

The questions I have for my blog readers concern the actual difficulty several of them had in doing this. Some kids wanted to spew out 5-6 in a matter of minutes, while others were stumped, and claimed they truly couldn't think of anything nice to do for someone. Excuse me--couldn't think of anything nice they "wanted to do" for someone. :( And that was surprising to me. So, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if there was something I can model more explicitly in my classroom for this handful of kids so that the thought of doing something nice for someone else is not such a chore or anomaly. And is not dependent upon reciprocity.

Is it linked to the idea of responsibility? Or the understanding of cause and effect--how one of our own actions propels an action or reaction in someone else, whether for the positive or negative? What are some successful ways some of you have had breaking through to those whose kindness and thoughtfulness are not so abundant? What are some hard-won insights you can share with us?