January 17, 2013
Dear Parents;
This week our class has been
learning about compassion. We learned that compassion is when we see someone’s
need and do something about it. Eyes + Hands = Hearts.
In class I am encouraging all children to think about special ways that they
can practice kindness towards others here at school and outside of school.
Students will be provided with four compassion hearts where they can record the acts of compassion or kindness
they have completed throughout the rest of the month. Please help your child by
signing the back of each heart describing the act kindness your child has done.
Have your child draw a picture or write on the heart about the act of kindness.
As each heart is completed, please return the hearts to the classroom so that it
can be displayed with the rest of the hearts from our classroom. Your child may
ask for additional hearts once the original ones are returned to school. We are
hoping to fill the entire hall with the compassionate and kind acts that our wonderful
children have done for others. Our class goal is to do 100 acts of kindness by
the 100th day of school, February 5th. But of course we
don’t have to stop there.
When talking to your child about
special things they can do for others, please stress to them that these
kindnesses should be done without reward. They should also be done without
announcing it to someone why they are doing them. I realize that they will need
to tell you about them so that you may write them down, but we are hoping that
many of these kindnesses will continue and become automatic behaviors without
needing to be recorded.
I appreciate any time that you
might be able to spend with your child in discussing suggestions for ways that
they can show kindness towards others. Some possible suggestions would be:
helping a younger sibling, writing a kind note to someone, offering help to a
family member or neighbor, sharing with siblings, offering to help with family
chores, cleaning a room without being told, completing homework without being
reminded, etc. These are only a few ideas that could be used. Having your child
come up with their own ideas will be even more meaningful to them.
Completed hearts may be sent in
one at a time or all together. I hope that you will enjoy this activity with
your child. If you would like to join us in recognizing acts of kindness and
compassion with your own acts of kindness, we will gladly add your hearts to
our display.
Thank you for your help!
