Sanfordville students love committing random acts of kindness

Since January, fourth graders at Sanfordville Elementary have been participating in the annual 100 Acts of Kindness Project. Students set program-long goals and have had weekly lessons all focused on the theme of kindness and considering ways to turn thoughts into action. The students received a packet explaining their shared goal of committing 100 Acts of Kindness, as well as thoughtful ways they could pitch in at home (as some students pointed out, setting the table without being asked).

Some of the weekly kindness goals have included: do something nice for their buddies in kindergarten (draw them a picture, give them stickers, etc…); make Valentine’s Day cards for Veterans; make Valentine’s Day crafts for the residents of Schervier Pavilion. Throughout their weekly lessons and activities, students have been able to see just how spreading kindness creates a chain reaction, even recognizing the impacts of their actions right here in school!

This year’s event kicked off in Week 1 by learning about Martin Luther King, Jr., and how his acts of kindness helped change the world. They’ve also read the book The Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed, by Emily Pearson, which teaches the importance of “paying it forward”, and the ripples of kindness that can have.

Weekly texts continued to be an important focus. During Week 2, students read Invisible Boy, by Trudy Ludwig. During Week 3, students applied the “Read Like a Fan” technique to their kindness reading. “Reading Like a Fan” encourages students to closely examine the work of an author they like, by comparing/contrasting storytelling elements across various texts. The anchor text for Week3 was Saving Winslow and Moo, by Sharon Creech, which focuses on protecting animals.

For their complementary Week 3 kindness activity, the students and their families donated items for the Warwick Valley Humane Society. A humane society representative even came to speak with the classes to educate them. Students sent handmade thank you cards back to the humane society for all of the volunteers.

In Week 4, the students got to enjoy a virtual story hour on World Read Aloud Day: February 7, 2024! Author Christina Dankert, The Kindness Machine, joined a very enthusiastic and attentive fourth grade via livestream.

Thank you to all of the fourth-grade teachers for organizing these events and helping to make the kindness project – and kindness week – so successful: Jen Disy, Alexandra Steinberg, Stacey Fitzgerald, Carolyn Detorres, Sherry Wishnia, Jenny Augelli, Maureen Wihry, and Carrie Ann Greiner. And thank you to all of the Sanfordville families who have helped reinforce the importance of kindness in our students and contributed to our own acts of kindness.