The Kindness Olympics

Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week. We've been on such a kindness kick at school this year that it almost feels like we're training for the Kindness Olympics, as if there were such a thing. We kicked off the year by collecting quarters so that our Student Council leaders could buy some fleece to cut and tie these beautiful blankets to help warm up our friends who are struggling with homelessness. We collected enough quarters to buy the fleece for fifty blankets . . . 

and fill Mr. Whitlock's van for distribution in Houston.

We had just finished with the fleece when we received this incredible donation of blankets from our friends at Warm Up, America!, knit, crocheted, and tied as housewarming gifts for those friends who are just now returning home after Hurricane Harvey displaced them six months ago.

What a delight it has been to distribute this generous gift. Even as I was finding homes for these gorgeous throws, we were busy in Art class creating our Kindness Rocks. Just this past week, this one came in from a school in Racine, Wisconsin.

At the end of January, we welcomed the Kids For Peace Kindness Team . . . 

 to build our Peace Garden and dedicate our Peaceful Hearts Playground. We are so grateful to GameTime, Hasbro, Kind Coins contributors, and our PTO for our new state-of-the-art play space.

Our #kindcoins spokesperson, Jet Stream Jax, has gone on location several times these past few weeks to video chat from the playground with schools who donated to help make our dream play space a reality. It's super fun to watch him interact with other kindness crusaders from coast to coast. 

Before we could even start breaking in our new Challenge Course, it was time to launch our annual Sweets for Our Soldiers campaign. We made these colorful, creative Valentines for our troops in Counseling Classes . . . 

and sent out this request for baked goods.

And did our school family ever respond in kind; just look at this table filled with kindness from our kitchens waiting for our student leaders to put together our priority mail packages.

Thirty six of these care packages are heading to the ten deployed servicemen that we adopted at the time of this post.

And for fun, we cut up our PSA posters like this one . . . 

 and put them in the boxes to give the soldiers a puzzle to build.

We are so grateful to the Friendswood Rotary for their

$500 donation to help defray the cost of postage.

You may think that we're done donating for a while, but just this week I saw some adorable PSA posters being hung in our halls, announcing a Pet Supply drive to help our shelters who are still housing Hurricane Harvey rescue animals. 

See what I mean about the Kindness Olympics? Just imagine if the world were as determined, dedicated, and driven to warm our world with kindness as our olympic athletes are to win a medal for their countries.

I'm so thankful to work in a place where we truly are 

in training for the Kindness Olympics all year long.

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Just Fifty Cents

Today I'm excited because my brother Mark and his friend Shawn are in town for the Super Bowl tomorrow, so they're staying with us. It was great fun to sit around the breakfast table this morning, listen to the story of how they ended up getting into the ESPN party alongside Green Bay Packer Eddie Lacy . . .

and enjoy pancakes and bacon with them

 while laughing and reconnecting.

I'm also super satisfied and bursting with joy

 that our SOS (Sweets for Our Soldiers) care packages

filled with home-baked goodness and homemade Valentines 

are on their way to the hearts, hands, and tummies 

of the sixteen deployed service men and women we adopted.

This long-standing tradition started years ago as an Operation SOS campaign to send much-needed supplies to our soldiers with notes of thanks as a way to show our patriotism and citizenship while expressing our gratitude for their heroism, service and sacrifice.

A few years back, we switched gears and decided to encourage our families to work together for a cause so we could send kindness from our kitchens, something our military heroes have coined hugs from home. 

This week, a picture of exactly what we were going for.

Every year, the Friendswood Rotary sets aside funds to help us pay the postage on these flat-rate boxes, which cost $17.35 each to ship. At this year's Rotary luncheon, a month before our project would even begin, one Rotarian felt called to give us a $20 from her purse, so their donation would be $520 in all. It really helps to not have to worry about how we'll possibly pay for this project on a school budget and we are so very grateful to the Rotary for their generous partnership.

I started out just taping up seventeen large boxes because we never know how many families will be able to carve out time to make something tasty for our troops. As we filled one table, then two and three with these delectable delights, I knew that this would be yet another successful service project.

Student Council reps met Thursday afternoon to fill each box to the brim with the yummy donations that had rolled in as I taped up thirteen more boxes. By 4:30 that afternoon, our thirty boxes were packed full and taped shut, ready to go.

Because the Rotary provided the funds for shipping, it wasn't until I got home that afternoon that I wondered how close we'd come to using their donation. I couldn't believe what I saw when I punched the numbers into my calculator. 

Wait, what? Just 50 cents?

Was it a coincidence that my brother needed my car on Friday so I caught a ride to school with my friend Caryn? Was it a coincidence that she just happens to have a brother on deployment getting two of our boxes? And was it a coincidence that Caryn's children were the first to hear the story about how beautifully our box count aligned with the Rotary's donation?

After helping me carry the boxes to the front and stack them into a patriotic pyramid display, these superheroes each brought me a quarter, the fifty cents that we would need to complete this year's SOS kindness campaign. 

It doesn't get any sweeter than that.

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Hugs From Home

Happy Great Kindness Challenge Week 2016! I'm super excited about our kindness project as we've been working hard to make Valentines for those military personnel who won't be home with their loved ones on Valentines' Day this year. Just look at these beauties, which our heroes refer to as hugs from home.

It has been so much fun creating these treasures together

in Leadership Central.

We're using crayons and colored pencils,

Where's Whitlock? Can you spot Westwood's AP?

scissors and glue,

construction paper, lined paper and plain white.

So many choices, so little time.

While we worked, we listened to Red Grammer, the singer and songwriter who's coming to Friendswood to share his Bucketfilling songs with us this week. If you're local, join us Friday night at 7 pm at Friendswood Junior High for a free concert.

On Wednesday, we'll be painting a Conflict-Resolution Peace Labyrinth on the slab outside between the two schools, another perfect complement to our 

Great Kindness Challenge.

Each student received a Kindness Matters wristband and have been encouraged to start each day wearing it on their left wrist. When they do an intentional act of kindness, they move it to their right wrist to remind them that showing kindness is the right thing to do.

To be clear, kindness knows no calendar, but isn't it amazing to be celebrating it with nearly 5 million other students around the world? Here's to a kinder, gentler, more peaceful place as we warm the world with kindness.

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Sweets For Soldiers

Today I'm excited because our families are taking citizenship into the kitchen and the baked goods for our servicemen and women who'll be away from home at holiday time are rolling in. Brownies? Check. Rice Crispy Treats? Check. Pecan Pie Bars? Check. Sugar Cookies? Check. Chocolate Chip Cookies?

Oh, I can practically see the smiles on their faces and totally feel

 the happiness in their hearts as they devour our homemade goodness ...

and read our students' wonderful notes of admiration and thanks.

It's one of my favorite service-learning projects each year, 

because we get to give back to those who are giving up so much,

to serve and protect, 

to keep us safe and free.

I hope they feel pampered, appreciated and loved.

We're hoping to chat by Skype with a few of those heroes

on the Monday that we're back from break, so stay tuned.

On another note, I'm so grateful to character.org {formerly known as the Character Education Partnership} for filming and sharing the video footage of my Kindness keynote.

They also posted Mary Gordon's keynote on empathy and Eduardo Briceño's presentation on growth mindset, so check those out, too. You'll be glad you did.

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Service & Sacrifice

As you may know, I have a soft spot in my heart for the military.

Every year, we support a group of men and women who are deployed and serving on active duty away from home through our Supplies for Our Soldiers project. A few times we've actually Skyped with the soldiers as they open our care packages and thank-you notes. Sometimes, the troops send pictures.

We love knowing that our gratitude will ease their burden ... 

if only for a bit.

Sometimes we get notes back, like this one from early January:

Greetings from Afghanistan!

I just got your package of goodies today. I'm glad we decided to check mail today (even though it usually only comes in on Thursdays). Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to do that for me. It truly brought tears to my eyes to know that your whole class participated in putting together the package. The letters that they wrote remind me of my own daughter's writing (she's 8 and in 3rd grade).  

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and blessed New Year! Again, thank you so much for your package of goodies.  I will be sure to share them with the rest of my team.

First, this soldier is a mom. On deployment. In Afghanistan. Can you imagine? Second, it's humbling that she's thanking us, for something so small, when her gift to us is ginormous! Then, we find out that she's got a daughter in the third grade. Quite common, I'm sure, but so hard for me to fathom. That's why I can't help but get jazzed when there's a new resource 
for Children of Military Families.

Because it's their service and sacrifice

that often goes unnoticed and unrecognized.

Here's what some of the children on the ProfessorChild DVD had to say as they expressed their thoughts back at home while their parent is away. 

Service and sacrifice never sounded so real ...
watch for yourself ... prepare to feel their stories.

Honestly and quite candidly, these precious children share their feelings, give advice to peers as well as to parents, tell us what they'd do if they had a magic wand, and describe themselves and their experience.

And it's a powerful 46 minutes! 

Share it with the military kids on your campus to validate their experience and with the others to elevate empathy.

There's even a free workbook download available {here}. 

Need a military-themed book or two to go with this DVD?

Sometimes We Were Brave by Pat Brisson
Hero Mom by Melinda Hardin
Night Catch by Brenda Ehrmantraut
The Year of the Jungle by Suzanne Collins
America's White Table by Margo Theis Raven


On a related note, congratulations to our friends at ProfessorChild for their award-winning Children & Grief DVD. Click {here} to see the American Library Association's prestigious list of 2014 Notable Children's Videos.

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PPBF: The Weird Series

Today I am thankful to be able to give an awesome update to our 

Citizenship Cookie Campaign.

We sent 45 boxes of homemade deliciousness in the shape of cookies and cookie bars to our deployed servicemen and women this week. YUM!

The generosity of our community never ceases to amaze me.

We packed at least ten dozen cookies/bars in each box. Simple math predicts that approximately 5400 tasty treats are on their way to the troops from Texas in time for Thanksgiving. This makes me happy, happy, happy.

Switching gears, today's PPBF is actually a three-in-one series 

though they could stand alone as well. 

Weird! 

Dare!

Tough!

Let's start with Weird!

Title:  Weird!

Author: Erin Krankel

Illustrator: Paula Heaphy

Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing

Date: July 27, 2012

Suitable for: grades K-4th

Themes: respect for differences, acceptance, point of view

Brief synopsis: When Luisa changes key things about herself (including her polka-dot boots) to keep from being called weird, nothing else changes. What will it take to fit in?

Opening page: Hi. My name is Luisa and I have a problem. There is a girl in my class named Sam who thinks that everything I do is 

WEIRD!

Resources: 

Download the Leaders' Guide from Free Spirit {here}.

Read reviews on the books' website {here}.

See what Youth Literature Reviews wrote about the series {here}.

Read more at the Children's Book Review blog {here}.

Please Hear What I'm Not Saying poem {here}.

Why I like this book: I was intrigued at the point-of-view concept of this trio because it's basically the same scene but told through the eyes and in the voice of three very different girls. It's clear that the author and illustrator worked so well together to bring this story to life. The author has thoughtfully written not only a thorough leaders' guide but also loads of activity suggestions and ideas in the back of each book. Confidence, Kindness, or Courage Club anybody?

Each one of these girls wears a "mask" that hides her real identity.

Find out from your students if there's a difference between who they are and who others think they are. What does it take to be confident in who you are despite what others think? My Kaitlyn used to tell me she had a Camp Kaitlyn and a school Kaitlyn. I loved that she could be who she really was at Camp!

The lessons and the corresponding self-talk messages that these three main characters learn are timeless and oh, so very important!

In Weird!, Luisa learns that there's only one she so she'd best be the best she that she can be.

In Tough!, Sam learns that being a friend is more important that being cool.

And in Dare!, Jayla learns to stand up for herself.

Each book ends with notes from each of the girls that'll help others who are in their shoes manage and deal with similar conflicts.

Two thumbs up for this stellar series!

Want more PPBF new titles today? 

Visit Susanna Leonard Hill's blog next!

Next week Friday we won't have a PPBF 'cause we'll be doing the Turkey Tango with our families. Weird, I know.

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