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?

Mrs. Claus Needs Our Help!

Christmas is right around the corner! Are you ready? I know that my third graders are. It seems that there is Christmas spirit everywhere in my classroom. I enjoy spending this time of year with children. Their excitement is contagious and so encouraging. It puts me in the spirit of giving. I want my students to remember what a special Christmas season they had in third grade.

Recently, we received an urgent message from Mrs. Claus. She was working on getting Santa's suit ready for the holiday season when she accidently put the suit in the dryer on high heat! Of course his suit shrank and Mrs. Claus felt terrible about it, so she enlisted the help of my class to design a new suit for Santa. We have been hard at work designing the perfect suit. I will post their projects as soon as they're done! They will be worth the wait, I promise!

It seems that Mrs. Claus has received word about all of our hard work and wanted to express her gratitude. We had this waiting for us on Monday when we came to school! Our tree had a pile of presents underneath. Upon further examination, we realized that there was a note attached.

We read the note and it was from Mrs. Claus explaining the presents under the tree.  Click here to read her letter to us. Feel free to spread the holiday cheer! We opened our first present and read the book as a class. We will try to post each day about what our present was!

Happy Learning and Happy Holidays!

Voting is a Right!!

My student teacher this semester has been teaching our kiddos about the election process.  She included explaining about the history of voting, why it's such a special right, and is even going to give kids a chance to run their own campaigns.  Maybe that's why Tuesday was such an exciting day for us in third grade!  Each child had the opportunity to vote for President in a way similar to how adults vote.

First, each student had to present their id/voter registration card to the person manning the polling station.  She checked them in and sent them to the next station.

Students were then assigned to a computer to vote electronically.  The thought and pride students put into the vote was priceless.  They took it so seriously!!

 

 They weren't done yet though!  Each child even got their own "I Voted" sticker!!

 

We Voted!!!

 

I hope that everyone had the chance to get out and cast your vote!  Teaching in a place with a heavy military presence reminded me of how important making our voice heard is.  Men and women fight everyday for that right!

 

Happy Learning!