Global Kind Project Celebration!

On Thursday, we joined The Educator Collaborative for a LIVE celebration of the Global Kind Project! 

After getting to see pictures of classrooms all around the world and learning about all that they did to be kind over the last few weeks, we got a special shoutout from The Educator Collaborative founder Chris Lehmann and he shared an important message: 

"There are so many of us, including YOU, who can help to make things better—Lets celebrate all that we can do to to make the world a better place than it was yesterday"

We also got to hear from author Trudy Ludwig, who wrote The Invisible Boy along with many other great stories, and she too shared with us all that we are capable of by just being kind. If you'd like to watch the celebration, click here!

Now all of the giraffes have had a chance to sit in the hot seat! 

Global Kind Project Weeks 2 and 3: Gratitude and Empathy

Over the last two weeks, we've continued on our journey to kindness by exploring gratitude and empathy both in our classroom and in classrooms across the country!

Our first act of gratitude was making Valentines for Veterans, which will be delivered to military men and women via the Pease Greeters! We wished them a Happy Valentine's Day, and thanked them for serving our country and keeping us safe. 

Later that week, we had a Mystery Skype with a class in Michigan! After we guessed which state they were from, we played some games to get to know each other and we all made a pact to smile at three people before leaving for the school day. 

During our skype, we brainstormed a list of people who work for our schools who don't always get the appreciation they deserve, and we made thank you cards for our custodians, cafeteria workers, office staff, nurses, and our bus drivers! We also got together with the Elephant Class for some safari time and read the book Sam's Pet Temper before going through some of Teaching Tolerance's empathy resources. 

We continued with our "Kindness Hot Seat" as well, and we are hoping to get everyone in the hot seat by the end of next week!

Next week we will continue to focus on Empathy with a "mix it up" day at lunch and some more great books!

Gratitude

This week, the giraffes continued on with celebrating The Global Kind Project by focusing on Gratitude. 

We also showed gratitude for the teachers in our lives for Teacher Appreciation Week! Each of the giraffes made a card for one of the classroom or related arts teachers they've had in the past at SMS and we delivered them to their classrooms for Teacher Appreciation Day on Tuesday. The giraffes also surprised Ms. Riley and Mrs. Zampini with some wonderful pictures and two beautiful mini gardens filled with beautiful painted stones and kind messages <3

Thank you SO much for our incredible gifts and for all of the other kind gestures you've done for us over the last few school days. We are so grateful for YOU!!