By Eliana Hudson, UMKC communications intern

Every week at AFIA, we focus on kindness and compassion. Next week, we will increase this focus as October is National Bullying Prevention Month.

An example of how we focus on kindness is visible in our first grade classroom. During the first few weeks of school, the first graders created a Kindness Tree. For each act of kindness, such as saying kind words, and doing kind deeds, a flower created by a student, was added to the Kindness Tree. This visual representation of kindness helps to foster a positive and caring learning environment because children will be able to see the tree blossom and grow; showing that kindness is contagious.

In this blog entry, Lisa Currie shares the work of  Patty O’Grady:

Kindness changes the brain by the experience of kindness. Children and adolescents do not learn kindness by only thinking about it and talking about it. Kindness is best learned by feeling so they can reproduce it.

Currie shares that some additional benefits of teaching kindness in schools includes: greater sense of belonging and improved self-esteem; increased peer acceptance; improved health and less stress; better concentration and improved results; and less bullying.

The kindness flowers will help promote a positive, safe and healthy environment for learning and fun. To track our progress, the first graders will count the flowers and graph the results periodically. We can’t wait to see how beautiful the Kindness Tree will be at the end of the school year!