Looking for good in the world…

Taking this demonstration very seriously before heading off on her first investigation.

This is how the seed for “Kindness Detectives” was planted… 

A colleague of mine decided to celebrate his birthday through giving rather than receiving. His birthday falls close to the 100^th day of school and as elementary school teachers this day is a big deal. My first grade class got together with our 5^th grade buddies and my colleague launched the challenge of doing 100 acts of kindness. As a gift to further motivate our students, he made labels for notebooks and gave each child a mechanical pencil. We also received a poster for our classroom providing ideas for kind things you can do.

We watched a video called Life Vest Inside- Kindness Boomerang. This short, engaging film helped excite the kids about looking around for acts of kindness and encouraged them to think about how they can participate throughout their daily lives.

I have since viewed this TED Talk with Orly Wahba and learned more about the creator of the video. She’s a middle school teacher who shares our vision for creating a society where kids pay attention to and appreciate kindness around them as well as learn how to foster kindness and compassion for themselves.

Following the gathering with our 5^th grade buddies, we returned to our classroom and I introduced the idea to become “Kindness Detectives”. I wove yarn through each of their notebooks and as they accepted the investigative challenge, they were each “crowned” with their special book. In my state of enthusiasm, I went so far as to create a chant to get us feeling like true detectives…or kindness superheroes…on the look-out for good happening in the world. The kids immediately set off taking notes about things they see, hear and do.

Sometimes Kindness Detectives need to put their notebooks down and go play outside!

Not only was it fun to collaborate across grade levels, but watching the kids feel excited to pay attention to kindness in new ways brought us all more joy. We’ve continued bringing the notebooks back and forth to school and frequently share about our findings. This adventure has not only created a purpose for writing, we’re also growing into more thoughtful human beings.

xo