R.A.K Week- Spreading the Kindness at AIS!

This week is Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 9-13th). Last year, I had a lot of fun planning R.A.K week and spreading the kindness all over my school. This year, I decided to take it a step further and try to make R.A.K week bigger and BETTER!

**DISCLAIMER** I will admit, I am a thief when it comes to good ideas. I took some ideas from School Counseling blogs and Pinterest mainly.. I will do my best to give credit where credit is due! 

Here are some of the things I did to help celebrate R.A.K week at my school! 

• Morning Announcements: Each day of R.A.K week, I tried to have a little blurb about Random Acts of Kindness. I kept it short, sweet, and direct. Here is an example of one of the morning announcements: 
• Today is DAY 1 of Random Acts of Kindness Week! This week, try to go ABOVE and BEYOND to spread kindness. A simple way to spread kindness is to say something nice. Who can you say something nice to? A teacher, a security guard, a canteen worker, a cleaner, another student, ANYONE!
• Staff Lounge display: It can be difficult to get staff buy-in sometimes, so this year I tried to do something to reach out and appeal to them. In our staff lounge, I posted up some R.A.K week ideas they could use in their classroom. I also added a gum ball machine where staff could write RAKs they received from other teachers. I found this awesome idea from Elementary School Counseling Website, 
• Student Display: Since R.A.K week is so close to Valentines day, I also created a display for our students that said "What will your next R.A.K be?" and posted different ideas on heart cut outs. I also included some pictures as well. The display didn't turn out that great, but it definitely got the idea across.
• Classroom Guidance Lessons: I see every class in grades 1-5 once within a six day cycle. I used the designated "guidance time" (40 minutes) to introduce R.A.K week and give each student a R.A.K challenge to complete!

             
1. With grade one, we made a craft to say thank you to our teachers. After school was out, I snuck into their rooms and taped the cards on their computers. They were quite surprised to see them the next morning and the students were excited to be a part of the surprise! Students also watched the video Color the World with Kindness. 
2. With grade two, we made origami paper hearts and wrote letters or nice encouraging words on the hearts to deliver to teachers. We also watched this video and discussed how kind acts can cause a "ripple effect". The students loved the video and even asked to watch it twice. The origami hearts will be delivered to teachers at the end of the week. 
3. Unfortunately, grade three missed their guidance lessons due to a school-wide event, however their classroom teachers still reinforced kindness in the classroom and did some seperate activities to celebrate R.A.K week. After getting back from our break, the grade three students will receive a lesson on "Keeping the Kindness going!" though. 
4. Grade four viewed a power point of kindness quotes and ideas that I purchased for Teachers Pay Teachers. They also helped create large-scale cards for some of our specialist teachers and departments. Some of the cards we made were for PE, Music, Library, and Art. The students were also able to help deliver their work to the teachers.
5. Grade five was focusing on their Middle School Survival Unit during this time and didn't receive the same focus lesson on kindness as the other students. However, to still encourage Random Acts of Kindness, I had students take a R.A.K from the "Kindness Bucket" and challenged them to complete the act before the end of the week. Next year, I will try to plan better so that they can focus on R.A.K week as well. 

• Small R.A.Ks: Separate from the student led R.A.Ks, I also wanted to spread some kindness around to people within the school. I left pieces of candy and "You have been R.A.Ked" notes on the desks of teachers, assistants, our principal, some of our other various staff members just to help spread some of the love. 

Overall, I think that this R.A.K week has been a successful one thus far! I can't wait to find more activities to celebrate R.A.K week and make it better each and every year! What did you do to R.A.K week? 

RAK Week- Thursday/Friday and WRAP UP!

So I have been a little late with posting but I thought I would go ahead and include what my school did for Thursday and Friday for Random Acts of Kindness Week 2014!


Thursday Morning Daily News:

Good morning! This is Agent Jayden and Agent Kristoff from the AIS Secret Service. Today is the fourth day of Random Acts of Kindness week. Today’s message is about making and keeping friends. When you are kind to others, more people want to be around you and be your friend!  Being kind to others is one of the best ways to make and keep friends! How will you show kindness to kids in your class today?

Secret Service Random Act of Kindness: 

On Thursday, my agents delivered some bookmarks that we have been making for our First Graders! Our first and second graders do a unit on Bucket Fillers using the book, "How Full is Your Bucket? For Kids" By Tom Rath.  Our Student Council members helped color some of the bookmarks as well! I had them laminated and then we tied in red string to the ends to jazz them up! The Secret Agents delivered them during our D.E.A.R (Drop Everything And Read time) and I think the first graders really enjoyed them! 

Friday Morning Daily News:

Good morning! This is Agent Wendy and Agent Stacy from the AIS Secret Service. Today is the final day of Random Acts of Kindness week. Today’s message is about passing kindness on.  When we do kind things for people, they feel so good about what we did that they often do kind acts for others. Thanks to all the students and staff for helping to make this a great week. Now let’s all work together to pass the kindness on throughout our school and into our community throughout the rest of the year!

-AIS Secret Service

Secret Service Random Acts of Kindness

Since it was Valentines Day, our secret service agents made valentines for our librarians and our ICT teacher (Ms. Jen WHO IS AWESOME!). They delivered the valentines wearing their Secret Agent Glasses and badges. 

School-wide RAKS
For Thursday and Friday, I let the classroom teachers choose how they wanted to conclude RAK week within their classrooms. A lot of teachers had activities to wrap-up the week and help build their classroom community. Some of the teachers had buckets in their room in which they had students write down every time they witnessed a RAK and then they shared them on Friday. Some teachers had some really creative ideas with kindness quotes in which the students reflected on what they meant to them during the week and then had to give away their quote on Friday. Overall, the end of the week was a little less structured but I feel it was a great way to encourage focused teacher involvement. 

WRAP-UP

We wrapped up our RAK week on Monday during a morning assembly. I showed a video of the RAK Week in Review and had some student and teacher volunteers to help me out! Here is the video we showed. 

RAK Week Review

** DISCLAIMER: Although video consent has been received from these students and their parents, this video is to be shared for educational purposes ONLY. Please consider before sharing**

Random Acts of Kindness Week- Tuesday!

Random Acts of Kindness Week! TUESDAY!!

Morning Announcements for Tuesday!  

Good morning! This is Agent Cricket and Agent Tiger from the AIS Secret Service. Today is the second day of Random Acts of Kindness week. A simple way to make our school, community, and world a better place is by performing Random Acts of Kindness. How many Random Acts of Kindness can you do today?? Set a goal for yourself for how many RAKs you can do!

-AIS Secret Service 

Random Act of Kindness for our School Service Staff! 

Today, the agents and I posted our heart hands on a display board downstairs. Each of our Service Staff members has a thank you card made on the heart hands. The students wrote "Thank You!" in English and Vietnamese on the cards. We made the hands for our Nannies, Security Guards, Cleaners, and Maintenance Staff. The final product is below: 

Throughout the school...

Already, I have noticed students coming up to me and saying, "Ms. Sara! I have done 3 Random Acts of Kindness already today" or "Ms. Sara, I helped push-in chairs after lunch! I am being kind."  

Random Acts of Kindness Week! Monday!

Assembly Introduction to Random Acts of Kindness Week!

Some mornings we have "Spirit Assemblies". These are used as a way to energize teachers and students and help strengthen our school's community. During these assemblies, we sing our school song and have some announcements. During this week's assembly, I had some of the AIS Secret Service Agents come up in their sunglasses and badges and stand up while we showed a video we created to introduce Random Acts of Kindness. We created this video during our group time and edited it with iMovie (from the App store! AWESOME tool!) 

AIS Random Acts of Kindness Video Link

Check it out! 

The kids seemed to respond well and were excited about the "Secret Agents". 

Morning Announcements for Monday!  

Good morning! This is Agent Dragonfly and Agent Grasshopper from the AIS Secret Service. This week is Random Acts of Kindness week! We perform Random Acts of Kindness when we go beyond what is expected of us and reach out to help another person. There are three simple steps to performing a Random Act of Kindness.

• The first step is to find out what another person needs. For example, Sally has her hands full and she needs to open the door to get to her class.

• The second step is to think about how you would feel if you had that need. You might feel frustrated if your hands were full and you could not easily open the door by yourself. 

• The final step to performing a Random Act of Kindness is to offer your help. Hold the door open and let Sally enter.

There are hundreds of ways to show someone that you care. This week, look for opportunities to show that you care by performing Random Acts of Kindness.

Random Act of Kindness for Teachers!

In order to jump start the week, the students helped post two GIANT paper teacups they created in group. On the teacups they had filled in kind words and compliments for our awesome staff. I donated some tea bags to the Staff lounge and wrote on the board, "Welcome back! AIS is so lucky to have such awesome TEA-chers! Help yourself to some TEA as a thank you for all you do! Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week! -AIS Secret Service"

Classroom Extensions!

I really wanted RAK week to be saturated with information on Kindness and the benefits it has! Up until this point, I have been working with teachers to create lessons for their class that are focused on kindness. Here are some of the resources I shared with them to help spark some ideas! 

"Random Acts of Kindness Week will be here soon! Here are some resources to help your planning and RAK week discussions with your students." 

·         Educator Resources:  http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-resources

·         Character Ed Resource: http://inspiremykids.com/

·         Kindness Videos from RAK:  www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-videos

·         Story of California high school students who gave a bike to an elementary student who had his bike stolen twice: http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?id=9301992

·         Kindness Boomerang: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwAYpLVyeFU

·         How Full is your bucket Video Book (Book also in library): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5R6-2m_qHk

·         Coca-cola ad (don’t let this defer you) that actually shows quality RAKs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPhsJnn_rMk

·         Smiling at others and how it affects others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TnW0srkpcA

...And the Agents?? 

The agents have been helping me out through the day, mainly during break and recess time to post flyers around the school promoting RAK week. They have a busy week ahead of them but I know they can do it!

Here is to a successful first day of RAK Week 2014!

As always, PLEASE share your ideas and additional resources below! I love feedback!

-Ms. Sara

Secret Service Group Part 2!

Some more of the RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS that the SECRET SERVICE AGENTS have been up to this year....

Our 3-5th grade agents reading to our First Graders!

Thank You Cards for our Service Staff (Nannies, Cleaners, Guards)- The larger cards were hand-delivered prior to RAK Week. The hand hearts will be displayed in a display board in our lobby during RAK week! Each of our Service Staff Members has one!

We also created a mini "Preview" as to what is in store for RAK Week 2014. We showed the video at our Pillar Assembly prior to break to get the kids interested in RAK Week! Check it out!
RAK Week Preview

(This was created using iMovie App. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

AIS Secret Service Group

I found an awesome idea for a small group online from The Inspired Counselor blog (which I absolutely LOVE). I decided to try and implement my own Secret Service Group at my school using the blog post as a guiding light. The idea behind the group is to promote RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS (RAKS). Well, let me say, this has already been a HUGE success. Each week, my Secret Agents receive their Secret Missions for the upcoming week. They have until the next group session to complete the mission. Each week, we target a different group in the school.

Here is our breakdown: 
Week 1: Classroom based RAK.
Week 2: Home-based RAK (this was over the holiday break)
Week 3: RAK for Nannies, Guards and Cleaners.
Week 4: RAK for Grades K-1.
Week 5: RAK for Canteen staff.
Week 6: RAK "Create-your-own"
Week 7: RAK WEEK!! (Secret Agents will be completing tasks throughout the entire week and promoting RAK week school-wide!)
Week 8: Closing Session (review of the group, celebration, etc.)

The students complete journals every week as well and reflect on their RAK and how it made themselves and others feel. I will be posting pictures and some of their products soon!