Special thanks to the grade 4 and 5 students at Giles Campus French Immersion school for letting me come into your class and share what I learned about kindness! I was so excited to hear your ideas on how you can spread kindness in your community and I can't wait to hear all about the actions you take!
If you don't know, Sparks is an age division of Girl Guides of Canada for five and six year old girls. I volunteer with a Spark unit and tonight my sister came with me to the meeting. The girls enjoyed having a different focus to the evening - they had many good ideas of how they could spread kindness in their homes and at school. We made paper "hugs" (2 construction paper hands tied together with ribbon on which they can write a special message) to be shared with others as a special act of kindness and they each promised to find more ways to spread kindness to the people around them in the coming weeks.
My first Kindness Can presentation went really well! Special thanks to the teachers at St. James Sunday School who let me share.
The kids were all awesome and had some great ideas about how they can spread kindness at school and home, even the littlest ones. We finished off with a craft, of course - a great tangible reminder that there are many different ways to spread kindness to other people. It was a learning experience for me. Now I know what works with that age group and what needs to be changed before I run the program again with the 27th Windsor Sparks next week. Research? Finished. Understand the science of kindness? Of course! .....although there is always room to learn more.
Now, comes the challenging part: Spreading the word. Telling others about and why such little acts are such a big deal. Most importantly, making it comprehensible for children. Children's minds are like sponges, easily shaped and willing and able to soak up new knowledge, yet their attention spans can leave little to be desired. The youth are the future of our planet, without them we have nothing. This being said, tomorrow Jackie and I will make our first Kindness Can! presentation to the children in Sunday School at St. James Anglican Church. It will be quite an experience! |