PPBF: Be Kind

Happy Friday; today I'm excited to share that I've been out
and about connecting with Kindness Crusaders.
Meet Mayra and look at what she made for me.


It's every bit as beautiful as her warm welcome was,
when I visited her McWhirter school family this week.
Here's a display she created from LEGOs inside of her office!


On today's school visit, kindness looked like this,
a personalized parking spot waiting for me. 


On Wednesday, kindness made the front page
of our local newspaper; see the lower right column?
Click{here} to read the article about
author Tamara Letter's visit to Friendswood.


Yesterday I Skyped with some fifth-grade superheroes


whose kindness looked like engagement and respect  


 and these thoughtful reflections:


I'm a lot like Dr. Borba? Be still my melting heart.

So many easy, free ways to show kindness, which is 
exactly what has me so jazzed about today's PPBF.

Title: Be Kind
Author: Pat Zietlow Miller
Illustrator: Jen Hill
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Birth Date: February 6, 2018
Suitable for ages: 3-6
Themes: empathy kindness, friendship
Brief synopsis: When her friend spills her grape juice, our narrator wants to be kind to her, but isn't really sure how. Journey along as she realizes that opportunities to be kind are all around us.
Opening page: Tanish spilled grape juice yesterday.

Resources:
Watch a read-aloud on You Tube {here}.
Read a Publishers Weekly review {here}.
Praise for Be Kind at the IndieBound site {here}.
Sing along with Try A Little Kindness {here}.
Compare and contrast with What Does It Mean To Be Kind?

Why I like this book: To be perfectly honest, I passed this book up several times this past year. I just didn't want need another book telling the kids to be kind. Or so I thought. Every time that I went to Barnes & Noble (which is a lot!), it kept calling my name. It's such a simple text with a profound message that shows the boomerang, the ripple, the multiplier effect of kindness. 

Here, Wendy Hankin's Kind Kids at Kirk are showing us how many kind acts one kind act will affect in just one short month, 28 days, if the person whom you were kind to also did a kind act: 268,435,456.


What other ways can your students show kindness?
*Throw away garbage words. Here, Sharon Dixon's fifth graders
pledge to not say these things to themselves or others anymore.


*Celebrate someone you admire; tell them out loud
what makes them so special, why you love them.


*Go visit someone special. Tamara's visit to Jax
created an incredible kindness win-win.

Photo credit: FISD Communications Department
*Remind someone who's struggling that they are enough.


*Make a decadent dessert to share with someone special.
*Invite a friend to do a book study with you.
*Send an uplifting song or inspirational poster.
{Better yet, wear it on your shirt on Wednesdays.}

Thanks to Kirk Elementary for this cool idea.
*Ask a friend to come along on a walk with you.
*Write a note of cheer and put it in the mail.
*Paint and hide some kindness rocks around town.
*Host a Smile Off to see who smiles first; it'll bring a crazy
cool energy to the room that you didn't even know you needed.


*Collect something for a cause, like blankets for the homeless
{Thanks to Ross Elementary for these two kind ideas.}

A myriad of ways to Be Kind. Every day.

Check out this book, then head on over to Susanna Hill's blog
to see today's other PPBF picks


Happy weekend; have fun as we March into April.






1 comment

  1. Kindness crusaders! I love that! I think a couple of girls at our local middle school have started a group of something like kindness crusaders...

    ReplyDelete

I really enjoy hearing from my readers; thanks for sharing your reflections with us!