"Kindness is Contagious"

As part of our service learning project for Peace Team, the fifth graders have been interviewing teachers, parents, friends, and relatives asking the question, “What does being of service mean?” The students are discovering that there are many ways to share kindness and be of service. In another assignment, the fifth graders researched and explored the lives of people who are or have been of service to our community and world. Both of these assignments are preparing them for their participation in our Peace Team program where they will practice being of service for our school community during lunch-recess. More importantly, through our weekly sacred circle sessions when we share our feelings and practice listening attentively, we are learning that kindness begins in one’s heart.

Peace Team will begin on Wednesday, September 27. The fifth graders are grouped in “tribes.” There are eight tribes with five students in each. Mr. Black’s class will be on duty on Monday and Wednesday, while Mrs. Matsumoto’s class will have duty on Tuesday and Thursday. Friday will be their “day off.”

The bright green Peace Team shirts have not yet arrived, so the fifth graders will be using name tags for now. The students must wear their Peace Team shirts for duty so the teachers and other students can easily identify them while at the playground, playcourt, and ball field, and in the dining room.

The fourth graders who were trained in peer mediation last year have started signing up for being peer mediators again this year. They will be stationed in the CE House and available to help with settling conflicts during lunch-recess. The third graders will be starting their peer mediation training in October.