Sunday, December 2, 2012

RACKS: Random Acts of Classroom Kindness

Hello darlings!  Last year, I came across some Random Acts of Kindness ideas on Pinterest.  I know lots of teachers are now taking that idea and doing it with their classrooms.  My kiddos absolutely LOVED being sneaky and performing R.A.C.K.S around the school!  (Random Acts of CLASSROOM Kindness).  I am super excited to get started this year and make it even better!

Here are just a few of the ideas from last year....

We gave hand warmers to our recess monitors!



We gave a few packs of flashcards and a game to a classroom.


We made fun pencils with pipe cleaners and bells for a classroom.


We gave a read aloud book to a class.



We gave a teacher some treats.



We helped the school secretary sort teacher mail


I teach the importance of giving to my kiddos and stress to them that we give to others because it is the right thing to do and it makes us feel good inside.  We do not give to have someone say thank you.  In fact, we try to be anonymous as much as possible.  We don't want people to know it is us!

I made a different version this year that you can download for free.  It is done in Word so you can edit it as well.  I ONLY ask that if you download it, you COMMENT with at least one idea for a RACK!  Let's help each other!


Happy RACKing!





33 comments:

  1. I SO love this idea! Do you know of a book that would work especially well with this? I want to do this with my 2nd graders. We could make some holiday bookmarks for an entire class. Thank you!

    cbwirfs@gmail.com

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    1. Thanks for the idea of the bookmarks! I am not sure of a good book to read with this... maybe The Giving Tree?
      Amy

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  2. Amy...I love the acronym. This a great way to show what the spirit of the holidays is really about. I'm thinking of having my students help our librarian shelve the books and I like the bookmark idea too. I am pinning this to my secret board on Pinterest. That way I can do it for my colleagues without them stealing the idea off my board first. I pinned something similar for Halloween and they all jumped the boat before I could start it. Thank you so much for sharing!

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    1. TIna- what a great idea of helping the librarian! I am totally feeling you with the secret Pinterest board! I know what that is like! Have fun!
      Amy

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  3. Thank you for this, it seems that the theme this weekend is random acts. I just started our annual RAK in our classroom and all of these ideas are only going to add to the excitement.

    faithfulinfirst.blogspot.com

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    1. I am so glad so many classrooms have already been RACKing! It is so exciting!
      Amy

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  4. Give a class who will be taking state tests at the end of the year, sharpened pencils and highlighters. At my school, classroom teachers are responsible for sharpening their own testing pencils and having to make sure each student has 2 sharpened pencils for testing is something I wait until the last minute to do!

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    1. That is a great idea! I HATE pencils just because of the whole sharpening thing! I think the pencil companies are purposely making non-sharpening pencils! It's a conspiracy!
      Amy

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  5. I love RACK activities for kids, especially when they are carried out anonymously. It adds to the joy of giving!

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    1. Thanks Michele! It is so hard for kiddos not to get recognition for good things they do! They seem to think they have to get told, "Good job!" for everything! That is why I love doing this anonymously!
      Amy

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  6. Love this! Thanks so much for sharing it! I'm thinking of having students write compliments or short thank yous to our awesome recess duty and lunch ladies -- those that work so hard, but aren't often appreciated. I'll be revisiting this blog entry to see what others think too. I have a feeling there will be some awesome ideas!
    Thanks again!
    Katie
    I Want to be a Super Teacher

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    1. That is such a great idea Katie and easy to implement! Thanks!!
      Amy

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  7. How about helping the janitor wipe off the tables after lunch!! They work hard!

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    1. I saw your post and I already asked the custodian if we could help her this week! Great idea!!!
      Amy

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  8. I have bought plain aprons at Hobby Lobby and let my students decorate them to give to our very hard working lunch ladies. My fifth graders loved the idea of surprising the ladies that feed them so well.

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    1. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea! So clever and adorable!
      I am totally doing that!
      Amy

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  9. I love the idea for handwarmers for recess monitors or crossing guards!

    Some ideas I'm considering... making some flower pens for the office (so easy to do, and no one will steal them!), mixing up some magic playdoh for a kindergarten class, convincing a bus driver to let us sneak on the bus early and leave candy canes on each seat, and inviting a class to do an activity with us to give another teacher a break!

    Thanks for sharing your ideas!

    Jenny
    Luckeyfrog's Lilypad

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    1. Whoa Jenny! So many awesome ideas! I am going to have to try everyone of them!
      Amy

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  10. This is a great idea! I am a speech therapist, so I would like to adapt your idea to "Random Acts of Communication Kindness". This will be such a great activity, not only for my students with autism spectrum disorders, but all my kiddos working to improve their communication and interaction skills. I ran into this just in time for the holidays and the new year. Thanks so much!!

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  11. love this idea!! http://teachers-acts.blogspot.com

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  12. Thank you for your ideas. Going to introduce this to my class tomorrow. I'm thinking of bringing in some hot chocolate and then brainstorm ideas we can do as a class for our random acts of kindness week.

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  13. Someone was wanting to know of some books to read with this. We are doing this is my room and so far we have read The Giving Tree, Thank you, Mr. Falker, Enemy Pie, How Full is Your Bucket, and Sprinkle your Sparkles. We are taking cookies and gluten free brownies around to all of our teachers today. We also are creating a wreath. Every time one of us does something nice for someone they get to tie a ribbon on and hopefully it will fill up fast.

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  14. We have been doing our holiday random acts of kindness this year. So far we have delivered cookies to the office staff, made holiday cards for the previous year teacher, made thank you cards for the cafeteria and left thank you notes with a treat on our desks for the janitor to find. Tomorrow we will be writing cards for our habitat guest presenter who comes in once a month.

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  16. Thank you for the download. We make Christmas placemats for a local senior citizen home and get well cards for our Walgreen's pharmacy. :)

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