Fifth Graders Learn the Value of Kindness
January 25, 2010 • written by Samantha Hartfiel
It was an afternoon filled with laughter, learning, and lamenting on Wednesday January 6 as Armstrong Elementary fifth graders experienced the annual Kindness Retreat. Youth Frontiers, a nationwide nonprofit organization that advocates spreading virtuous qualities to compulsory school students through various retreats, including the Courage, Wisdom, Respect, and Kindness retreats, hosted this educational event for the local elementary. These one-day events teach youth different methods to identify, analyze, and solve universal issues in their schools, making the students into more courteous citizens. Armstrong students, along with the help of approximately fifteen volunteers from the Park High School National Honor Society, spent six hours at the Kindness Retreat on Wednesday playing games, singing songs, and discussing methods to combat the unkindness in their learning environment.
The Kindness Retreat began with a few icebreaking games to get the youth energized and excited for the intense day ahead of them. Volunteers as well as fifth graders competed to see who the best thumb wrestler was, who the most cheerful greeter was, and who could follow the directions the best. However, while cooling off, the students split into the first of three small group discussions of the day, where the students had the opportunity to talk about topics involving kindness. These groups, led by high school volunteers, allowed all fifth grade students to have a chance to speak about what they felt were significant unkind issues in their school. The first group session discussed what types of bullying happen at Armstrong Elementary. The most common answers between the twelve groups were gossip, physical bullying, and name-calling.
After the first small group session, the youth regrouped into a large assemblage to sing some songs together about kindness, such as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and “Lean On Me”, which both emphasized the power of teamwork.
“I liked when we all sat on the floor and sang songs like ‘Lean on Me’,” Park junior Paige Carter grins, “It was really cute.”
Also, the fifth graders got the chance to hear the Youth Frontier Leaders, Seniz and Sam, talk about some of their experiences with bullies in elementary school. Both of the stories finished with an effective way to stop a bully, which led to the second small group discussion.
During the second small group session, the fifth graders compiled a list of all the ways to stop a bully from causing harm to an innocent victim. The most prevalent answers were to tell a trusted adult, walk away, or tell the bully to stop. With the answers collected, Seniz and Sam led a game of “Survey Says”, in which students played a Family Feud style game to guess the ten most popular responses.
The third and final group session asked the students to think about ways they each could spread kindness in their daily lives. By this time of the afternoon, the youth were well enlightened and were able to say their answers much quicker than before ultimately composing a list that consisted of; help classmates with homework, include someone left out, and give compliments to your peers or teachers.
The final, and most solemn activity of the day was titled the Kindness Boomerang, and was a slip of paper in which each student would write areas in their lives in which they wish to be more kind. Students were allowed to share their answers in front of the entire group, which included apologies for past unkind actions.
“The saddest apology was that boy who apologized for being so annoying to everyone,” stated one anonymous volunteer, “I just wanted to give the boy a hug.”
Overall, it appeared as if the fifth graders benefited from the day dedicated to kindness and appeared eager to utilize their newfound knowledge in the classroom.
“The kids definitely got stuff out of it and were really into the day,” Carter assures “I would totally come again next year!”
Photo by: Samantha Hartfiel
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