Paintings, presents, RACKing Oh My!

This week we have been working on our Christmas presents, assessments for the end of the quarter, and going on our first field trip of the year. Oh, and we begin our RACKing adventure.

I saw this awesome painting on Pinterest and I knew I had to try it with my class.  The teacher made a step by step drawing of a deer with her class and then they painted it.  I think they turned out A'deer'able!

The students finished drawing their deer and are getting ready to paint them.

First we painting the background.

The next day we painted the deer and added the finishing touches.  They turned out so cute.  I will have to take a picture of the finished product this week.  I mounted them on black paper and turned them in for laminating.

We began our RACKing adventure this week!  On Monday we talked about ways to be kind and played a game on being kind versus not kind.  Then throughout the week we did Random Acts of Christmas Kindness around our school.  It was very tricky to be so sneaky and not get caught. 

 I put each day in a bag so everyday we open a bag to let us know how we are going to do a Random Act of Kindness for that day.
 
I have really been stressing to the students that being kind does not mean you are going to get a present or even a thank you.  It is just nice to be kind and make someone feel special and by doing things like that it makes your heart feel warm.  
Here is what we have done so far:
Monday: Gave Smarties to a Smart Class.
Tuesday: Left a pop and M&Ms for our principal.
Wednesday: Sang Jingles Bells to the cafeteria staff.
Thursday: Colored nice notes and passed them to 3 different classes.  We went to the classroom when the students weren't there and laid the nice notes on their desks.
Friday: Gave a bag of M&Ms to the custodian. 

The students are looking forward to this each day.  It is SO great to see them be so kind.
Here is a picture of my students leaving notes at another classroom.

Dropping our kindness to the principal.

Our class Elf, Wolfie, has been up to surprise us each day.  Here is where he has been some of the days.

I think he looks like he is on a wrecking ball here.  LOL

Our last week before break is this week.  We have 3 full days and 2 half days.

I hope you have a great week! 

You have been RACKed

The day before Christmas Eve I was checking out Pinterest and I saw these great ideas of Racking.  I wasn't for sure what it was so I kept researching it.  If you don't know what Racking is, Racking stands for Random Acts of Christmas Kindness.  I know at my school we talk about Random Acts of Kindness all the time, but seeing these ideas of kindness around Christmas time just brought a tear to my eye.  I loved, loved, loved this idea!  I was so bummed that I had just found it the day before Christmas Eve.  There are other people who counted down the days until Christmas with a RACK each day.  I wish I would have found this at the beginning of December so I could have counted down the days to Christmas, but since I didn't, I still wanted to take a part in Racking.  Plus, I think this is so important for my son to see the random acts of kindness to help him appreciate things.  He is at an age that I don't feel like he appreciates a lot.  Yes, he says thank you and such, but I truly don't think he understands.  Anyways, I wanted to include him on the Racking.  So, after looking up different ideas, I made a list up of what we were going to do on Christmas Eve (since that was the only day we had left before Christmas).  Here are some of the acts of kindness we did.  

Liam putting the present in our mail box.

*Put a thank you Christmas gift out for our mail carrier.

*Went to a parking lot and put candy canes with a tag of what we were doing on random cars.

*Go up to people at a store and give them a candy cane. (We did this at a few stores)

*Tape a candy cane to a newspaper stand.

*Give cashiers a candy cane and smile and say Merry Christmas to them. (Again at a few stores)

*After eating at a restaurant, leave a GREAT tip with a candy cane.

*Pay for the person's toll behind me.

*Pay for someone's coffee.  

*Leave a candy candy and tag on the Redbox.  

Here is the tags we added to our candy canes. 

I enjoyed this so much.  It was so interesting in seeing the different responses we would get.  Some people were so thankful and appreciative, while others gave you a funny look because they didn't understand why you were talking to them.  My son was very shy when going up to someone, but then would be bouncing up an down after he gave a candy cane to a person.   I could tell it made him feel good to be giving something away.  I know it made my heart feel good too.  We will definitely be doing this again next year and making it a tradition.  I just don't have words for how it makes you feel.  I also plan on trying to do a Random Act of Kindness weekly.  I don't think this just has to be at Christmas time, it can be everyday!  Think of the kind of world we would live in if everyone did a Random Act of Kindness each day!  Wouldn't it be amazing??!