Comstock Park — Fifth-grader Betsie Reyna held a door open for a classmate and received a brightly colored pom-pom to place in a canning jar.
Betsie’s teacher, Danielle Mead, had her class write letters and thank-you notes to someone special in their lives. Each student received a pom-pom to place in the jar.
“I feel like the act of focusing on manners and being kind makes me feel good,” Betsie said. “It makes me feel like a better person.”
Since December, many students at Pine Island Elementary have been counting their acts of kindness by earning pom-poms to place in their classroom kindness jars.
Mead said along with filling the kindness jars, every morning the students shared the different ways they were being kind outside school.
Nicole McKay, a noninstructional and recess aide, came up with the kindness jars. She received a $1,000 grant from NT4Kindness, a West Michigan nonprofit focused on mental health and substance abuse.
The funds were used to purchase a canning jar and 120 pom-poms for each classroom. Classrooms that filled their jars received goodie bags for each student.
“At this age, students don’t think about kindness or necessarily practice it; it has to be taught.” said McKay, who encouraged teachers to use the jars to focus on specific areas they wanted their students to improve. “Hopefully, as they go out into the community, they will continue these acts of kindness.”
Betsie’s classmate, Landon Miller, said that while he enjoyed being rewarded for his acts of kindness, the kindness jar taught him the importance of being respectful, kind and responsible.
“I think it helped people learn about being kind,” Betsie said. “You certainly think about it more as you go about your day.”
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