Third graders in Marisa Amalfitano’s class at West End Elementary School are on a mission to spread kindness and positivity throughout their school this year. The class refers to themselves as the Kindness Crew and with the help of their teacher, finds new ways to brighten the day of students and staff.
Connecting with the district’s theme of the year “A Community of Caring,” the class brainstormed ideas at the beginning of the school year on how they could achieve their goal to promote kindness and positivity. They read a book called “Words and Your Heart” by Kate Jane Neal and learned that words can be used to heal.
The class broke their ideas up into different missions and have already accomplished two this school year. For their first mission, the students created approximately 50 bookmarks with kind messages on them. They then hid the bookmarks in books throughout the school library. Students who visited the library were pleasantly surprised to receive a handmade bookmark courtesy of the Kindness Crew.
The class recently participated in their second mission. Each student created 2-3 colorful posters filled with kind messages and positive quotes to be displayed in bathrooms across the school building. According to the students, if someone is having a difficult day, they can see the posters and hopefully feel better.
“I hope they feel joyful when they see our posters,” said third grader Jiselle Johnson.
The Kindness Crew has enjoyed fulfilling their missions not only for others but for themselves. The activities allow the class to feel good about what they are doing. In the future, the Kindness Crew has plans to spread kind messages through surprise Post-its on classroom doors and a plan to host a special morning to brighten the day of students and staff. In the Spring, the class will write kind messages outside the school with chalk and cheer on students as they get dropped off at school.
Although the class has their group missions of kindness, Mrs. Amalfitano said that she has witnessed each individual student perform their own acts of kindness on a daily basis. The class is truly embracing the Community of Caring theme and making a difference at West End Elementary School.