Lessons in Kindness: One Elementary School Teacher’s Ministry
Lessons in Kindness: One Elementary School Teacher’s Ministry
My 3rd grade class starts everyday by sharing an act of kindness. At the beginning of the year, I share acts of kindness that I have observed or read about. As the year goes on, students sign up to share what they have noticed. The acts can be simple like observing a person holding a door open for someone else, a classmate helping to pick up a spilled pencil box, or a parent reaching an object off of a high shelf from a grocery store for someone who couldn't reach it. The acts can also be big like a famous singer visiting a sick fan in a hospital.
The year we returned after covid, tensions were still running high. While the world was trying to return to normal, several people were still concerned about going out. I began thinking about some of the seniors in the community who may be confined to their houses and lonely. I asked the students if they would like to participate in an act of kindness towards our seniors by writing them letters. The students very enthusiastically responded with a yes! (I was well aware that the students would benefit just as much as the seniors from the letters!) I reached out to the local senior center in town and came up with some interested people. I found other acquaintances, and several seniors from our church parish so that every 3rd grader had a pen pal. We exchanged 4 letters over the course of the year. Academically, it was great for students to work on neat handwriting, complete sentences/paragraphs, and addressing envelopes. Personally, it was such a great connection for the children and the seniors. I can still see the excitement on the faces of the children when the letters arrived. The anxious reading and sharing of their letters - the children begging to write back immediately - and the connections students and seniors made over games they liked, or pets they had. One senior mentioned how she would be excited to check her mail because she knew she might have a special letter arriving for her.
It was so successful that I have continued the project in the years since. The connections are exciting to see. For example, a senior mentioned a book she liked to read and the 3rd grader raced to our library to see if we had it. Another senior told about old cars he had restored and his pen pal looked them up on the computer to see what that model of car looked like. Still another senior had a terrible problem with raccoons getting into the treehouse he had for his grandchildren. The raccoon was using it as a bathroom! The whole class brainstormed ideas to help him with the raccoon.
This year, I decided to try to have the pen pals meet at the end of the year, not knowing if the seniors would be available or interested in meeting in person. Every single senior came to the park to meet their pen pals. It was so great to see them together. The park was full of smiles and laughter.
Speaking of kindness, below is a link to a must see short video from Jenni about a man named Al Nixon in St. Petersburg, Florida who has spent hours listening to people on a bench near the beach. People come from all over the world to have him listen to them, and as one woman noted, “there is often a line.”