Celebrating the end of the year is a blast! If you follow me on instagram, Facebook, or blog, you know I am all about teaching my students kindness. I feel as though kindness, consideration of others, and overall care for each other has descended over the past years even since I was in elementary school (read more of my thoughts on anti-bully programs here). I really don’t remember kids being so mean and heartless (but who knows, in elementary school no one ever remembers their teacher yelling just throwing parties ha). With all the hoopla over the end of the year countdowns and what not, I decided this year it was time to CELEBRATE each and every one of us in our classroom. We have worked on overdrive to care for each other and it’s time to make us all feel absolutely confident and joyful about ourselves (even the tough little buggers)!
I smashed together some ideas I’d seen floating around instagram and came up with this:
It’s so simple! Each day we will take down someone’s picture and put it in a circle map (we are a Thinking Map school, so we have to use our maps accordingly). The “student of the day” so to speak sits in MY teacher chair (score) and all the students, one by one, tell the student, “You are ________”. The “student of the day” says, “Thank you _______!”. That student that just gave the affirming word comes up and writes it on the circle map and signs their name. I make sure to give clear directions that the students aren’t talking to me about the student, they are talking directly TO the student. It’s much more powerful.
After each student has been able to say a kind word, the student of the day gets to take the GIANT POSTER home! Can you imagine? Their own anchor chart all about THEM! I do hope this is a keep sake for a while, or at least long enough for these kind words to sink in to their little souls!
During distance learning, I created a digital version that is easy to implement while not in the classroom. But it will work for in classroom use too!
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