It’s hard to believe that less than three weeks remain in this semester. Granted, I’ve been listening to Christmas music since about July. Just ask my roommate. And the students who have wandered in my room to say hi when their bus arrives in the morning.
“Ms. Watson… you listening to Christmas music?”
Starting on Thursday, I can officially welcome the Kindness Elves to the classroom for the second year… because it will be December.
Last year, I came across the idea of Kindness Elves as I was desperately searching for positive classroom management and character education ideas for my 4th grade class. I don’t remember where I got the idea, but this website has some good ideas for Kindness Elves at home.
I found these elves on Amazon. The kids like them — even the “big” kids. Ana and Paulie write a letter to the class about twice a week. This decision was just a realistic expectation that I couldn’t write a letter with a different idea and have time to read it with my classes every day. I hope to expand it to three times a week. In addition to being a character lesson not ‘from Ms. Watson… again’, it was a fun way incorporate the vocabulary into our study of character traits and see how the characters in our stories displayed the traits and actions in the elves’ letters. About a week into receiving the letters, the students figured out I was the one writing them. They still wanted to practice their letter writing to the elves, though, and enjoyed the brief (but personal) responses back. They also watched carefully to see if they could catch me putting the letter in our mailbox, which kept me on my toes!
Here are editable versions of the 7 Kindness Letters from last year. I hope they bring classroom cheer and honest discussions about the importance of a child’s kindness and character.
kindness-elves-letter-1-appreciation
kindness-elves-letter-2-respect
kindness-elves-letter-4-consideration
kindness-elves-letter-5-including-others
kindness-elves-letter-6-thoughtfulness
kindness-elves-letter-7-loyalty-and-patience
thoughts and songs 