Kindness Compli-Mats Guest Post

Today I'm excited to introduce two cyberspace collaborators who've agreed to share their creative Compli-Mats idea with us.
What a great way to generate kindness in the classroom!

 Thank you, Christy and Tammy, and welcome.

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Well, hello! We're Christy and Tammy from Fluttering Through First Grade and we're so excited to be blogging over on your Corner today! Thanks so much for having us!

A few weeks ago, we blogged about one way we help our students see the good in one another. It gets challenging as we hop into spring ... Sometimes we can be the kindest of friends, but sometimes we really need help understanding that kindness counts. 

So, we created a quick activity to get them thinking of the good in others. We give our students Compli-Mats. 

 

We first came up with the idea a few years back, around Valentine's Day. The kids were so dialed into the candy, cards and a whole lot of love in the form of gifts!

Yay!! Right?

Well, sort of...

Well, no actually...Not really...

Not for us teachers.

As we watched them beam from ear to ear passing out candy and cards galore, we stood there on the sidelines wanting just one of them to realize that showing love was really much, much more.

They were missing part of it. 

So we sent them off to recess and devised an on-the-spot, (you can knock this out in 10 minutes, with time to spare), go, go GO! plan right then and there. Sometimes, those are the best lesson plans for us. 

When they returned from recess, we had a serious conversation about showing love to others in the form of compliments.

What did they mean?

How did they feel?

Is it all about receiving or can we give compliments too?

Here's What We Do

1. We brainstorm a few compliments up on our board, but really want them to speak from the heart, not just copy, so keep it brief. 

2. We discuss how really thinking about the person matters. Paying personal compliments that give a detail are encouraged. 

3. We  remind them that no unkind words will be tolerated for this activity ... But, if it happens, we use it as a teachable moment, without calling any negative attention to anybody. 

Once we feel comfortable and sense that they are comfortable, 

we get to work!

We created a Compli-Mat for each student by creating and enlarging a heart on 12x18" construction paper on our copy machine. You may need to play with it to get it just right, but once you do, save the master! Just speaking from a lil' experience. :) 

We rotate desk by desk, paying compliments to our friends.

We write what we like about them, how they make us feel, or just  whatever we want them to know from our hearts.

When we've rotated around the entire classroom, and end up back at our own desk, we spend time jazzing up our own compli-mats. It's our way of getting them to read their work. 

{But, shhh ... that's a secret. :)}

We give them markers, and tell them to trace and read all the compliments their class has paid them. 

They beam from ear to ear as they read and decorate. 

We sit on the sidelines and cheer!

Since starting Compli-Mats in our classroom, we have found they work anytime of year ... especially around the time when Spring Fever may be incredibly contagious...

Most of the time, our class never knows when they're coming ... They just return from recess to find a Compli-Mat waiting. This is usually followed by an uproar of cheers, which is the highest compliment they can give us teachers. :)

You can stop by our blog to read our original Compli-mats post {here}. We hope your class takes some time to find the good in others, too. 

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WoWzA ... what a gift. I admire your creativity 
and I thank you both so much for
sharing your time and talents with us today!