HAPPY February Kindness Day

Thursday, February, 15th, 2018

THEME: We {heart} Kindness!
Love is Born Through the Giving of Kindness

LOVE and KINDNESS is what the month of February is all about. We hope you will continue to encourage your students to do the our Random Acts of Kindness Challenge Calendar:

Tomorrow is  BE EXTRA KIND TO YOUR TEACHER…:)

Here is a fun activity you can do with your students. 

In our Kindness Begins with Me Planning Booklet, we have many ideas to help you plan each of your monthly Kindness Day activities. For the month of February, we wanted to share two of our activities that you could also do tomorrow or use for a Kindness discussion:

REPAIRING A HEART

• Objective: Students will see how damaging harsh words or unkind acts can be on someone.
• Inspire: Ask the students how they feel when someone is mean to them.
• Empower: Have students write down a time when they were hurt and how they would have handled the situation differently.
• Act: Pass around a large paper heart. Have each student take a turn crumpling it in reference to when their feelings might have been hurt. Then try and smooth it out. It will be hard to restore it back to normal but it can be repaired and bandaged with kind words and actions. Have each student place a band aid on the heart with their names on it. Hang it in the class to remind students to always be kind and to be the “band-aid” of kindness.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF KINDNESS
(Discussion goes along with CKM Video in the Media Suggestions)

Community Kindness Movement – 6 Scientific Reason Why Kindness is GOOD FOR YOU!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20r2pTq3Iv8&t=2s

Kindness gives us healthier hearts. Acts of kindness are often accompanied by emotional warmth. Emotional
warmth produces the hormone oxytocin in the brain and throughout the body. Of much recent interest is its significant role
in the cardiovascular system. Oxytocin causes the release of a chemical called nitric oxide in blood vessels, which dilates (expands) the blood vessels. This reduces blood pressure, and therefore oxytocin is known as a “cardio-protective” hormone because it protects the heart (by lowering blood pressure). The key is that acts kindness can produce oxytocin, and therefore kindness can be said to be cardio-protective.

How can kindness improve your health? Volunteering results in more health benefits
than exercising or quitting smoking. “Helping a neighbor, volunteering, or donating goods and services results in a helper’s high.” —Stephen Post, Author,“The Hidden Gifts of Helping”.

People who volunteer live a longer more satisfied life.“People who volunteer tend to
experience fewer aches and pains. Giving help to others protects overall health twice
as much as aspirin protects against heart disease. People 55 and older w ho volunteer
for two or more organizations have an impressive 44% lower likelihood of dying, and
that’s after sifting out every other contributing factor, including physical health, exercise, gender, habits like smoking, marital status and many more. This is a stronger effect than exercising four times a week or going to church.” — Christine
Carter, Author“ Raising Happiness; In Pursuit of Joyful Kids and Happier Parents”.

Here is a fun video collage from January’s Kindness Day. Students made Kindness Posters to hang up in their school for their Kindness Week. The posters act as a visual tool in reminding students to do kind things and to encourage putting smiles on other students faces…:) Great job!