**Random Acts of Kindness in Miss Hane's 3's:
Great article in Parenting Dec/ Jan 2007 issue on 'How to Teach Kindness-
Raising A Compassionate child'=
http://www.parenting.com/parenting/child/article/0,19840,1560243,00.html?
topic=l1366
It is said in early childhood developmental studies that three year olds
are 'egocentric', meaning that they are not able to see past themselves and
not yet able to regard others in their world as being important figures.
Thus at Novemeber conferences, I find myself instructing parents on the one
area that three year olds struggle most in is sharing and taking turns.
Well, not in our class! We have broken the mold! Our students have created
a contagious feeling of kindness through their daily deeds towards their
peers and teachers. It is heard very often in our class 'Wow, that was so
wonderful of you to share the puzzle with your friend, go give yourselve a
HEART!'.
This is because we have instilled in our students from the first day of
school that if they want to earn a sticker at the end of the session and a
heart in their communication book, they have to do something nice for a
friend or a teacher without someone asking them to do it or it already being
their 'daily job'.
The children are now able to independantly do for others, report to a
teacher they did it and give themselves a 'pink heart' on our classroom
behavior chart. This is simply amazing! Moreover, parents are thrilled to
see that their child earned 'a PURPLE heart' to replace the pink heart on
the bulletan board for doing MULTIPLE good deeds in one session! This
helps me out immensely when indicating each childs behavior in their
notebooks!The newest step that was introduced in January 2007 was to sit
with each individual child and have them give themselves the heart sticker
in their communication book to tell their parents how they earned it!
I want to personally thank our paraprofessional, Mr Jim, Miss
Gabby (our Music Teacher), Nurse Pat, all therapists and parents who have
helped me 'catch them being good' in and out of the classroom!
