McKenzie Weed

Payton Doherty
11/30/17
Bringing Compassion Back to the Classroom

During our time at Bugg Elementary School, we noticed that there was a lack of kindness

in our first grade classroom and throughout the entire school. Specifically in Mrs. Kearns first

grade classroom we noticed that the students were extremely disrespectful and mean to one

another. As hard as Mrs. Kearns and the rest of the Bugg Elementary Staff try, they have not

been able to get through to the students on the importance of being kind to each other. With

160,000 students across the nation skipping school each day because of bullying, it is critical that

students understand how to be kind to others. Through these observations, we realized that we

needed to do something to help promote kindness in Mrs. Kearns first grade class and

throughout all of Bugg Elementary.

In schools across the world bullying had become an overwhelming issue. 28% of 6-12

grade students reported being bullied at some point in their high school careers. 9% of 6-12th

grade students reported being bullied online. This has obviously become a huge issue across the

nation. With the negative connotation that comes with bully, we decided to focus on a more

positive aspect. We decided that promoting kindness instead of demoting bullying is was a great

spin off of a typical anti bullying campaign. We hoped that by choosing kindness, we could

eliminate some bullying that occurs. If students become accustomed to being kind to one another

we hope that there will be a decrease in bullying.

Below is a picture of Bugg Elementary where we will complete our social action plan:
 McKenzie Weed
Payton Doherty
11/30/17
Action Plan

Social Action Plan Steps with Timeline:

This social action plan is designed to be done throughout the whole school in each

individual classroom. In order to do this, the administration, meaning the principle, needs to be

fully aware of how this week will go. Each teacher can take as much time out of their day to

complete the activity, but they will need to spend time each day in order to complete The

Kindness Project with their students. We will be collaborating with the teachers and engaging

their students. Students that do the bullying themselves may resist this social change because

they do not see their actions as wrong. They simply will not want to participate in the activities.

It is important to keep these students involved instead of leaving them out of the activities for the

week--they need to hear this message the most. We hope that The Kindness Project changes the

words that are being said throughout Bugg Elementary School. We hope that the students learn

how to treat everyone else with kindness and why it is important, and that after this week they

can all get along with each other and stop using the phrase no we cant work together.

Day 1: Introduce kindness by reading What Does it Mean to Be Kind?

To start the week off on a positive note, we want the students to be fully aware about

what kindness really is and what it means. After reading the book What does it Mean to Be

Kind?, students will be given a note card. On this note card, students will be writing what it

means to be kind. These notecards will be glued to a larger poster to spell out the word KIND,

and then this poster will be hung for many people to see.

Day 2: Prove that kindness can have a chain reaction by reading Because Amelia

Smiled
 McKenzie Weed
Payton Doherty
11/30/17
Now that the students know what kindness really is and how to show kindness, the

second day should be about how to spread kindness throughout the school. The book, Because

Amelia Smiled, will provide the students with background knowledge about how just one simple

smile can start a chain of kind deeds across the world. The activity to really set this knowledge

into action is creating a paper chain. This step is going to start in the classroom with the students

writing how people have been kind to them on a piece of paper, then connecting it to the person

beside them, but it is going to continue for the rest of the week. Every time a student sees another

student being kind, or is kind to another, they will write it on the paper and connect it to the

chain--this chain will hopefully be really long at the end of the week, and it can be connected to

the rest of the classes and wrap around the school.

Day 3: Discuss the importance of Random Acts of Kindness

On the third day of the kindness project we want children to understand that kindness can

be done so simply, in so many ways. Random Acts of Kindness are small gestures that take little

time to complete for people around you, like holding the door for the person behind you for

example. To help start this process, students will be finding rocks outside of the school (or the

teacher can bring in rocks if it is easier). On these rocks students will be writing little notes of

encouragement, or kind words that will brighten the persons day that finds the rock. The activity

for this day can also be modified to write the notes on paper if the teacher does not feel the rocks

are appropriate. It is important that students spread the notes all over the school, maybe even

taking some of the notes home to their family.

Day 4: Extend The Kindness Project outside of the school walls.

In order to really instill kindness in the hearts of the students, it is important that they

know kindness can occur outside of the classroom, as well. Have the students brainstorm ways
 McKenzie Weed
Payton Doherty
11/30/17
that they can show and spread kindness outside of the school, and if one of their ideas really

seem to speak to the class, you can complete that activity. If they cannot come up with a great

idea that everyone can agree on, have the students write letters to the troops who are fighting

over seas. The troops love to receive letters, and this encompasses kindness, random acts of

kindness, and kindness outside of the school. Let the kids be creative with their letters.

Day 5: Wrap-Up with a Kindness Circle

This step will bring the everything the students have been doing full circle back to the

classroom in a literal circle. Have the students sit in a circle with a blank piece of paper, and tell

them to write their name on the top. The students are going to pass their paper around to each of

their classmates, and each student is going to write something kind about the person whose name

is on the paper in front of them. This not only builds the students confidence in themselves while

reading what people wrote about them, but it gives the students practice in saying kind things to

each other. It is all around just a feel good activity in both directions. It proves to the students

that they can always find something that they like about their peers no matter how different they

are from each other.

Involving the Community

There are many ways in which we will involve the community in this social action plan.

An activity that students will be completing on the 3rd day of this plan includes the students

painting rocks. At first this seems ineffective but student will paint these small rocks and then be

challenged to place them around Raleigh. The point of the rocks is just to make someone smile

when they find the rock. On the back of each rock will be instructions to take a picture, post on

the Bugg Elementary Rocks! Facebook page and then rehide the rock. This activity provides
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Payton Doherty
11/30/17
many benefits to the community. First of all, it will get people outside and active as they hunt

for these rocks. Secondly, it will put a smile on peoples faces when they find these rocks.

Community members will also be invited to paint their own rocks and hide them or keep ones

they have found. We believe that this will be an amazing chain and will draw the many

community members into this Kindness Campaign. Below is an example of a rock painting

campaign that is happening in Lincoln County, North Carolina.

Resources

The nice thing about The Kindness Project is that it does not require a lot of resources

that the teachers dont already have in their classrooms. They will need construction paper,

notecards, rocks and paint (if doing the rock activity), and printer paper to complete the activities

that go along with The Kindness Project.

Outcomes

Through this 5 day social action plan on kindness we hope to promote happiness in the

classroom, school, community, and nation. We hope that students will realize the importance of

being kind to one another. More importantly, we hope that student will come to understand the

effects of not being kind to one another. Although this is only one plan at one school, we hope to
 McKenzie Weed
Payton Doherty
11/30/17
decrease the number of students who report being bullied each year. Bringing kindness back to

Bugg Elementary will create a more effective and comforting learning environment for students

and community members.

Begin Implementation

Implementation

We started implementing parts of this social action plan at Bugg Elementary school. The

first step we took was reading Because Amelia Smiled and What does it mean to be Kind? To

Mrs. Kearns first grade class. During this step we discussed with students how to two books

were related. Students were asked to think of examples of kind acts that happened in Because

Amelia Smiled. This engaging activity got students thinking about what kindness is and how they

can be kind to one another. We also had students create a poster of all the different ways they

could be kind to one another. This poster is displayed in their classroom currently.

Next Steps

The next step for our class would be to engage in ways that the students can be kind to

others outside of school, in the community and around the nation. We will do this by talking

about random acts of kindness and completing the rock painting activity listed as day three
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Payton Doherty
11/30/17
above. We will also show students how to be kind to people even when they are far away from

them by writing notes to troops overseas as listed as day four above.

To continue to spread this throughout the school we would distribute this social action

plan to teachers at Bugg Elementary as well as volunteer to conduction the plan in needed. This

will help the spread of kindness throughout all of Bugg Elementary and the community.