Breanna Dorman-Banks

Kindness Unit
Grade 3/4

Learning Intentions:
- I can connect and engage with others to develop my understanding of
kindness and to make connections to the story
- I will contribute my ideas and thoughts to help apply ideas of how we can be
a community of learners
- I can summarize key ideas and identify examples and quotes from the story
that show friendship and kindness

Guiding Questions:
- What can we learn from the stories that connect to kindness, friendship and
compassion?
- What can we learn about the series of books to help us become supportive
members of our community of learners?

Rationale: Pink shirt day falls on the week I will be in practicum, so instead of
focusing on the importance of it for one day, we will read themed stories each day
and following up with meaningful conversations. This connects in many ways to the
curriculum, especially with how stories can help us learn about ourselves and
becoming good members of the community of learners.

Curriculum Competencies:
- Engage actively as listeners
- Use personal experience and knowledge to connect to text and deepen
understanding of self, community, and world
- Exchange ideas and perspectives to build shared understanding
- Access and integrate information and ideas from a variety of sources and
from prior knowledge to build understanding
- Apply a variety of thinking skills to gain meaning from texts
- Consider different purposes, audiences, and perspectives in exploring texts

Process

Each day, while the students eat their lunches, I will read a book with a kindness,
friendship or compassion theme. Once the book is completed, we will have a short
discussion about the story. After, students will turn and talk to a partner (or two)
about the story and a guided question given by the teacher. They will write down
their answers on a Post-It. Post-It’s will be collected each day and at the end of the
week, they will be mounted onto a kindness poster
something like this:

If time permits, after students complete their last

Post-It Note on Friday, we will sit around the carpet
and do a compliment circle. That is where
everyone sits in a circle with their legs in. A
teacher usually begins by choosing a student and gives them a compliment. That
 Breanna Dorman-Banks

student then tucks their legs in and gives someone else a compliment. By the end,
everyone’s legs are tucked in and everyone has been complimented.

Day 1:
Book: Red Parka Mary by Peter Eyvindson

Post-It Question: What is one way you show kindness to someone new?

Day 2:
Book: Have you filled a bucket today? By Carol McCloud

Post-It Question: How will you fill someone’s bucket today?

Day 3:
Book: Imaginary Fred by Eoin Colfer

Post-It Question: What is one (or more) way you can show kindness on the
playground?

Day 4:
Book: Because Amelia Smiled by David Ezra Stein or the book “We’re all Wonders”

Post-It Question: What is one random act of kindness you will do tomorrow?

Day 5:
Book: The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

Post-It Question: How can you show kindness to someone who is feeling sad or has
no one to play with?”

*Compliment Circle

Guiding Ideas:

-Smile and say hello to someone new

-Let someone go ahead of you in the water fountain line
-Pick up garbage in the hall or outside
-Help someone who has dropped their books or papers
-Partner with someone who usually has trouble finding one
-Tell someone how much you like their new haircut, outfit, etc. (compliments are
good!)
-Straighten up or help clean the classroom
-Leave a nice note for a classmate or teacher
-Tell your friends “nice work” in class
-Make friends with the new kid at school