At the beginning of the school year, I read my students How Full is your Bucket?
This story encourages the students to share kind thoughts, and do nice things for others to help foster a positive learning environment. We have a spot in the classroom where each student has their own "bucket" where others can leave kind notes. Usually around this time of year, students have either forgotten about the buckets, or lost interest. In order to reignite the positive comments flying around the classroom, I use Valentine's Day as another opportunity to have my students share kind words with one another and create a positive atmosphere.
When the students come in, they find a Valentine from me on their desks. A fun pencil from the dollar bins at Target, with a cardstock heart message attached. This simple and inexpensive gift helps set the tone that this is a special day!
To encourage the sharing of positive comments with one another, we do what I call a "praise pass"
Each student gets a piece of pink cardstock with a large heart copied on it. I have every student write his / her name in large letters in the center of the heart. I explain to them that we will be passing our hearts around the room, so everyone can write compliments on them. It is important to model examples of good, specific compliments. We establish a pattern of how to pass the hearts so that each one makes it all the way around the room, and then I have the students do the first pass. I time the rotations (only about 10-15 seconds each) and when I say "pass" the students pass the heart they currently have along and receive a new one. Remind students to take this seriously, and stay quiet the whole time. I do not have the compliment giver sign his / her name, so the messages are anonymous.
I participate as well, and write a compliment on each student's heart, and in return they share a compliment with me too!
When the rotation is finished, and the students get their own hearts back, they are always thrilled to read all the nice things written about them. I encourage students to save it, so that when they are having a rough day, they can look at the heart, and remember all the nice things their classmates have said about them. Many choose to tape it inside their planner or keep it in their homework folder.
I ask the students to think about the process and point out that there were probably some names where it was really easy to think of something to write, and others where it was hard to come up with something specific. I challenge them over the next week to pay attention to their classmates, and try to get to know more about the people they got stuck on. Perhaps choose to sit next to that person at lunch one day, or play with them at recess. Building a positive classroom environment is a HUGE part of the learning process, and activities like these are time well spent.
How do you spread the love in your classroom on Valentine's Day?
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