How Parents Can Cultivate Empathy In Children

Please review the attached article composed by "Making Caring Common Project" by the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The article summarizes five research-based guide-points regarding how parents can cultivate empathy within their children. 

How Parents Can Cultivate Empathy In Children

Kindness in our classrooms!

During the month of October, Mrs. Russo and Ms. Ruggles traveled to all of our classrooms to discuss the topic of Kindness. 

Students discussed the importance of kindness, and how we can spread it throughout our classrooms, school, homes and community. We encouraged all students to "BE THE SPARK!" 

Here are some of the books we read to our students:

Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson:

It’s a feel-good story that inspires and celebrates a world full of ordinary deeds!

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig:

Meet Brian, the invisible boy. Nobody ever seems to notice him or think to include him in their group, game, or birthday party... until, that is, a new kid comes to class. When Justin, the new boy, arrives, Brian is the first to make him feel welcome. And when Brian and Justin team up to work on a class project together, Brian finds a way to shine.

Each Kindness by E.B. Lewis:

Each kindness makes the world a little better!With its powerful anti-bullying message and striking art, it will resonate with readers long after they've put it down. Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. When Chloe's teacher gives a lesson about how even small acts of kindness can change the world, Chloe is stung by the lost opportunity for friendship, and thinks about how much better it could have been if she'd shown a little kindness toward Maya.

Below you will find some of the activities students completed after listening and discussing the above stories!

Mr. Smith's class (4D) created their own "Kindness Garden". Each student decorated rocks (collected by Mrs. King over summer vacation!) with kindness words and phrases. 

2nd grade students shared the different kind of ways they have shown kindness in their lives. 

Check back for more exciting updates for Johnny Appleseed's Kindness Initiative! 

Size of the Problem

Kids struggle every day with regulating their emotions and behavior. 

We can help them by helping them cope with every day problems no matter how large they may seem in the moment and teach them during these situations as they occur.  

One way to do this is to help them to understand the size of their problem that they are faced with and to put into concrete terms that helps them understand and cope with it, therefore, regulating themselves and preparing them for the next time they are faced with a "problem" or obstacle.  

Here's a great short video (under 5 minutes) to help kids understand this concept of "size of the problem" and identify how the reaction should match the size of the problem.  

We can model this for our kids and students by talking out loud about how we deal with and cope with problems that they can understand (age appropriate terms of course) and model this for them.  

Size of the Problem Video

Spreading friendship

This TED talk is inspiring for schools across the country to start an initiative to help kids find friends who are struggling to find friends. Such a great idea. We are looking into finding benches to start this at JA.

Kindness Boomerang

Kick-off to Kindness Week!

During the week of September 19th-23rd, Johnny Appleseed Elementary School kicks off its year long kindness initiative. The goal of this initiative is to promote kindness throughout our entire building, homes and community. Students of all grade levels will begin the conversation about what kindness is while participate in classroom and school-wide activities. The Kindness initiative will continue throughout the entire school year.

Johnny Appleseed has declared this year's slogan as "Be The Spark!"' the ripple effect starts with one. One person to hold open a door, one person to leave a kind note on someone’s desk/locker, one person to write a thank you letter to a teacher. One person to be a spark of kindness when another really needs it. Students are encouraged to be the spark in our school as well as community. 

Each day during the morning announcements, members of JA's "Kindness Krew" have shared daily kindness quotes as well promoted our monthly activity "Caught Being Kind." Teachers were given 'fish fins' to complete when they catch their students being kind. These fins continue to be added to the Guidance bulletin board. Here is an update of what our board looks like:

Please check back for updates regarding our Kindness Initiative. 

~Ms. Ruggles, Guidance Counselor 

Social Skills

If you would like a list of book titles that will help teach different social skills, please contact one of us in the Guidance Department.  

We have topics that include (but are not limited to):  

• Friendship skills
• Lying
• Anxiety/Worrying
• Self-esteem
• Self-control
• Responsibility
• Respect
• Anger control
• Feelings
• Problem Solving
• Grief/Loss
• Family issues (i.e. divorce, new baby, etc.)
• Diversity and accepting differences, etc.  
• Specific topics (i.e. nose picking, accepting no, personal space, and many more)