Bookmarks!

My students worked on bookmarks to present to first graders.  We are so proud of our first grade panthers who are working so hard to become better readers.  My third graders love seeing their first grade friends travel to the library carrying along their treasured bookmark.  It's the gift that keeps on giving!

Flowers of Kindness: RAK #s 15, 16, and 17

While we used the same idea, we completed 3 Random Acts of Kindness. Students were given 6 flower petals where they wrote 6 compliments for several different important people in our school.

The flowers turned out so cute and bright! 

Miss Heather is our Student Support Monitor.  She is a vital part of our school community.  My students love her and they wanted her to get some flowers.  Miss Heather was given 20 flowers for a total of 120 reasons she's awesome.  We love her!  Miss Heather put her flowers in a vase and my kids love seeing their RAK on display.

For RAK #16, students presented compliment flowers to our school nurse.  She of course was grinning from ear to ear, but I think my students might have loved giving them more!

RAK #17, students worked on flowers for our marvelous secretaries.  These flowers will be presented to them later for Secretaries Day.  It's not completely random, but we're going to count it :)

You've Been RAKed #14

Students created tickets to put on the cars in the parking lot.  Several students wrote, "You've been issued a ticket...for being AWESOME!"

I heard from several staff members that it made their trip home a little more exciting.  Always remember that small things can make a huge impact!

Lucky #13!

We are officially half way to our goal of 26 Random Acts of Kindness... not done by Spring Break, but we get points for trying right?

State testing got kicked off for us today.  On Friday though, students worked to create "lifesaver" signs for teachers and staff who are directly involved with helping us Rock this Test!

On one side, students made a decorated sign with the adult's name on it.  On the other, they wrote a note describing why that person was a lifesaver.  We of course threw in some lifesaver candies too :)  Something quick to show our school how thankful we are.  It wasn't completely random, but it was super easy, yet meaningful.

My kids always end up having the best time when we go on our "RAK" missions.  Share with us about your Random Acts of Kindness!

You've Been R.A.K.ed #12!

Each week at my school, we have a Friday Celebration.  During this time, our students are celebrated in front of the entire school.  It's a great to time to see all the great things that our kids are up to.  I definitely leave each week being proud to be a panther!  ROAR!!

This week, my students decided to bring their R.A.K. project to the celebration and help give the assembly a kick start.  They made two lines and welcomed  all (well almost) the students and staff into the gathering.  I loved seeing how excited everyone was as they came in.  One student even said, "Hey, thanks for cheering me up!"  The project is working and making an impact.  Have you started doing Random Acts of Kindness?  If not, I challenge you to do so!

Sorry the picture's so blurry!  I had to get in on the high five action too :)

You've Been R.A.K.ed #9, 10, & 11!

Sorry that I haven't been keeping up with the blog.  We have had several busy weeks in third grade!  State testing is swiftly approaching and we have been working so hard to get ready.  One thing that we've done is take a few reading tests.  My students take these tests each quarter.  This time we graphed our growth between 2nd and 3rd quarters.  Then, we brainstormed "rewards" for meeting different benchmarks of growth.  This is quite a proud moment for me.  For two of the benchmarks, my students wanted extra R.A.K time! Check out the awesome growth!!

 

R.A.K. #9

Parent Teacher Conferences were held recently and my kiddos decided it was time that we prepared a RAK for our favorite people!  Students prepared S'More kits for both of their parents.  They even included a sweet note thanking them for coming and being so awesome!

R.A.K. #10

Students decided that we needed to share how awesome we thought our school support staff is. They do so much to help teachers and students be the best they can be.  We are very blessed!!

R.A.K. #11

At our school, we have three ladies who work very hard to help support reading growth.  Several of my students work with them daily in tutoring.  Their classrooms are in the modular, and with it being winter, running in and out of the school is very cold!  To show them how much we appreciate them, we made them homemade hot cocoa mix and cookies to warm them up!

 Be on the lookout for more R.A.Ks!!!  We're loving it!

Happy Valentine's Day and RAK #8

My students so love RAKing that they decided to spend part of their party on Valentine's Day creating a delivering a Random Act of Kindness to the teachers in our school!  I was incredibly proud of them.  It truly is an honor to be their teacher.

Students worked on creating a heart wreath.  We then added a note that said, "Just like a wreath, our love and respect for you will never end.  Happy Valentine's Day!  Love, Miss Mason's third graders."  These were completed on Wednesday and then were delivered on Thursday during our party.  The joy on teachers' faces was priceless.  My students were so excited to have the chance to share some love.  They said that we needed to remember teachers on this day because they work so hard to make the parties fun and exciting.  They deserve a reward too!  I hope that my colleagues were as excited to receive them, as we were to give our wreaths.

Delivering our special wreaths.  I loved watching the interactions between my kids and the staff.  Even my shy students were so excited to share!

The proud R.A.K.ers!!!  Happy Valentine's Day!!

You've Been R.A.K.ed #7

I've fallen behind on posting about my class' progress on our Random Acts of Kindness.  A few weeks ago, students worked on and carried out our 7th R.A.K!  Only 19 more to go!!

My students decided to work on an act for the other third grade class in our building.  They made signs that said "We think you're EXTRA special!"  Each of those students were also given a piece of gum.  It was such a hit, that my class was R.A.K.ed back!!

This is such a fun project and I have enjoyed getting to do with my students.  They work to earn our RAK time each and it is something that they take extreme pride in doing.  If you have suggestions of any other Random Acts that we could do here at school, we'd love to hear them!

You've Been R.A.K.ed!!! #6

Our Random Act of Kindness required us to work together. We decided to "RAK" our night time janitor by cleaning our own classroom so that he could take a few minutes off. This worked well for me too because our classroom ended up being quite clean. Because there were so many of us working together, we were able to really deep clean our room...which was awesome!!!

The nice welcome poster!  Check out how clean our room is!!

Of course, we had to take time to Rock Out!  R.A.K.ing people is too much fun not to!

Our technology cart even got a deep clean!

I loved the team work that I witnessed during this project. 

I hope that our project has touched lives.  We'd love to hear more ideas, as we're only at 6 of 26 :)  Make it point to make someone's day better today!!

I've Been R.A.K.ed!!!

As I was sitting in my classroom during my plan time today, my sweet third graders came in with the biggest grins on their faces.  Of course, I was curious about their demeanor.  Something had to be up!  My hunch was right...those cute little third graders had cooked up a R.A.K. with the help of wonderful coworker.  I was so proud of them for being proactive and taking such ownership with this project.  Then I found out that this R.A.K "victim" was me!! 

They presented me with a framed wordle.  Each of my students had thought of a word to describe me.  Mrs. Lang then took these words and created a wordle that she framed for me!  I can't wait to hang this up where I can see it everyday.  She had one more little surprise for me too!  She blessed me with a new journal.  Not just any journal though! It was filled with encouraging notes, quotes, and scripture.  I definitely got a little teary eyed today.

I can now tell you from personal experience that small Random Acts of Kindness make a HUGE impact on people's lives!  The smile on my face is not disappearing anytime soon :)  Right now, I guess my kids have successfully completed 5 Random Acts of Kindness...and they didn't even need my help!

You've Been R.A.K.ed Part 4!

My students thought that since we were ready for our fourth R.A.K., that we should perform it on the fourth graders.  My students are certainly taking ownership and so much pride in this project already!

Each of my kids was given a card that read:

 To a sweet fourth grader

You've Been R.A.K.ed!

Have a happy Friday

 

We then attached a piece of candy to each note.  While fourth graders were at specials, my students visited the two classrooms to leave their special surprise.  Just like when we delivered to the fifth graders, my students acted as if they were on a top secret mission!

 

 



Off to deliver the special surprise!!

Mission Accomplished!!!

Third graders are making an impact for good...what are you up to make a difference in the lives of those around you?

You've Been R.A.K.ed! #3

Our third random act of kindness took two days to complete. My students decided that they wanted to help with lunch in the cafeteria. I split my class into two groups. One group helped each day. This meant only 10 kids helped each day, rather than 20 third graders running around the lunch room looking for ways to help. 

My students got a big kick out this R.A.K. because they were able to help brighten the day of so many.  I don't know whose smiles were bigger, my kids or those we were trying to help! 

We first had to learn the ropes from the janitor.  He explained what we could do to help him out.  One way was helping with trash and emptying trays.  My students spent time walking around while friends were eating to see if there was any way they could help.





Who knew that helping with the trash could be so much fun!  I was proud of how much work and effort my kids put in to helping! I love the grins from some of my boys in this picture.


 

One of the lunch room paras showed them how to use the rags to clean the tables after each grade left the cafeteria to go to recess.

We then got busy after each grade left.  Again, check out the smiles of these boys as they are working to serve those they respect so much!

While "on break" from cleaning tables and picking up trash, students walked around helping friends open anything they needed opened.  They even had the chance to see and visit with their siblings, which is what's happening in the above picture.  How cute is that?

Each child was also greeted by the third grade cheering section with a high five and a "Welcome to lunch! We're so glad that you're here!"

Anyone have any fun stories to share about your Random Acts of Kindness that you've carried out recently?  We'd love to hear about them!

You've Been RAKed! Part 2!!

We completed our second Random Act of Kindness today. This time, we chose 5th graders. The fifth graders at our school are great leaders and this is why they were chosen. We wanted to celebrate them and remind them of how much we look up to them. Today, we "attacked" while fifth graders were out of their classroom at specials. They had a nice surprise waiting for them when they returned. I couldn't help but laugh at my kids in "secret agent mode". They took it so seriously! We sharpened pencils for them. My students then decorated flags that we attached to their pencils. The flags said "Thanks for being such great leaders at our school!"

This is one of my students showing off the pencil with her flag.

This is one of my students delivering a pencil to her sister! She was so proud to be able to deliver the pencil and brighten her big sister's day!

Ready to head off to visit 5th grade for our secret operation! I am so proud of them! What are you doing to help bring happiness to the world around you? Please feel free to leave us a comment and/or leave us ideas for our next R.A.K.!

You've Been R.A.K.ed part 1!

We completed our first Random Act of Kindess last week. My students were so excited about their first R.A.K.! I loved watching their faces as we prepared and then carried out our plan. First, as a class we decided to create a candy bar thank you card for our school principal. He works so hard to help our school and my students wanted to make him feel special. I had a wonderful parent donate the candy, as well as the wording for our note.

I can't even begin to tell you the excitement level in our classroom as I wrote out the letter. They were so excited for the opportunity to brighten someone's day! I was so proud of them. Here they are with their first Random Act of Kindness:

After we all agreed that the card was as perfect as it could get, we marched down to the principal's office to present him our gift. As we walked in, we told him that he had been "R.A.K.ed". He spent time reading the note and huggin the kids.

After we shared our card, we headed back to the classroom. We talked together about our feelings after giving to our principal. They wrote these thoughts down on sticky notes. Some of my favorites included: -I'm 100% happy! There's no room for sadness! -I feel great!! -Glad we got make him smile today! What a great life lesson for my kids! They are now working to earn more time to do more Random Acts of Kindness throughout our building. I hope you feel inspired. I'm loving this experience. Be on the lookout for more R.A.K moments!

Random Acts of Kindness

Happy New Year!  I hope that the New Year is off to a great start for all of you!  Things started off well for us in third grade.  We spent time this last week discussing our goals for the rest of the school year.  One of our discussions was about being kinder and more helpful at our school.  The focus at our school is leadership and my students wanted to model great leadership by reaching out to those around them.

One goal that we set for ourselves was to complete 26 random acts of kindness before Spring Break.  A big goal, but one that we're ready to face head on.  One night this week, students' homework included brainstorming ideas of small random acts we could perform at school.  I was so inspired by my students excitement and dedication to this project.  Many students came back with typed out lists of their ideas.  We talked about our favorite 26 ideas and put them in a jar.  We will pull one out each time we have time for a random act. 

I will try and post details about each of our random acts.  Stay tuned!  I'm hoping that my readers will be inspired to complete their own random acts of kindness.  It's time that each of us do our part to make a positive impact on the world around us.  Miss Mason's class is up for the challenge... are you?