Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Sixth Graders and the Smile Deck


--by lynnefair, posted Sep 23, 2010

I teach a sixth grade religion class, and today I played the Smile Deck game with my students.  They each left with two kind acts to complete and were very enthusiastic as I handed them regular Smile Cards to go along with the Smile Deck Cards.

One student was able to complete one of her acts that day itself, when class ended.  She held the door for those leaving the building, handing out Smile Cards to those who would take them.  It was uncomfortable for her at first (12 years old is an awkward age, at best), but she got the hang of it and started to enjoy her 15 minutes as 'Door Woman'!

I am excited to hear about how the other children's acts of kindness go.

I hope that my take on the ways we can “take care of God's creation” will sink into these kids, and they will carry forward the idea of embracing kindness as a meaningful part of life.

This is just the beginning for me!!  Thanks for the forum of inspiration!

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Readers Comments

iferlamb wrote: What a great idea!!
smiles...
Spoonerism wrote: Brilliant idea! Please come back and post some of the stories on the ho site! :-)


I think this could be a great way to get young people involved in creating a better world! Young people always get a lot of stick for being surly or not respecting others. But if encouraged to do the right thing, i know they will really become enthusiastic about it!
Happysoul wrote: Wow! Thats a great beginning! Waiting to hear from you how the others kids did the act :-)
iferlamb wrote: Totally awesome! What a great plan!

Smiles.
faeanne wrote: What a great way to use the smile deck! If more children learned the art of kindness when they were young, then the world would have a much brighter future. I'm looking forward to hearing how the rest of the students did!
serveothers wrote: Awesome job! The seeds you planted today will blossom into a full garden of smiles. This will guide pre-teenage kids to responsible, compassionate, and kind adults.
KristinP wrote: I wanted to write and say i appreciater what you're doing with your class and hope you're sharing this lesson with other teachers.
iroshads wrote: Well done (:
Murat wrote: Hope some of you were able to try out smile tagging! Just a few reminders: you must have a wabecm on your computer in order for it to work. When you click the smile' button, your wabecm will load so get ready to say cheez. If you go to one of our sites, underneath the post, the smile button can be found near the facebook like button, in between the tweet and email buttons. Smile away!

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