Feel Good Fridays in Kitah Gimmel

Kindness has always been central to the makeup of our third grade classroom. Throughout the year, we worked to foster positive student interactions, created a space for conversations in which students could share their similarities and celebrate differences, and practiced empathy. As we settled into our reality of distance learning, we knew that we wanted to be intentional in creating opportunities for students to continue practicing acts of kindness towards their classmates as well as their greater community. As such, our Feel Good Friday Project was born. What began as an opportunity for students to share their appreciation of one another and brighten up a classmate’s day, has grown into time for discussion, self- reflection, and intentional acts of kindness.

 

With the country hard hit with covid-19, and New Yorkers forced to quarantine within their homes, we wanted our students to support, and feel connected to, their neighbors and one another. In our first synchronous Feel Good Friday activity, we opened up the zoom chat and spent one minute writing words of kindness addressed to each student in the class. Smiles slowly spread across the screen as each child read compliments and words of appreciation form their peers. Soon, shouts of ‘ that was so fun!’ and ‘let’s do it again!’ filled our ‘classroom’ space. Students and teachers agreed that we wanted to spread the joy that was felt in that moment to our greater communities at school, in our neighborhoods, and across the country.

 

Each week since then, the third graders have spent one synchronous and one asynchronous lesson, brainstorming and completing acts of kindness towards others.

 

Some of our Feel Good Friday projects have included:

  • Writing and delivering letters to neighbors

  • Making chalk drawings with messages of hope

  • Mailing letters to family members

  • Writing messages of appreciation to ELT members

  • Creating “Thank You!” signs and posting them on windows and in apartment lobbies.

  • Reading and discussing books like “Something Happened in Our Town” and “Let’s Talk about Race”

  • Journaling exercises to share our feelings and questions about racism.

  • Writing letters of hope for our community

 

In the last few weeks, our Feel Good Friday lessons have taken a more narrow focus on addressing the racial inequalities that exist in our country. Our  Feel Good Friday time has consisted of time for self reflection, read-alouds, and a safe space for discussion and questions.

 

As we wrap up this year, and think of the eagerness and open- mindedness with which our students have approached their Feel Good times, we are hopeful for the future and confident that our soon to be fourth graders will continue to “meet the intellectual,social and moral challenges that lie ahead.”