“If someone falls down you can help them up,” said first-grader Rylee Daley.
“I say sorry if I do something wrong,” added Ethan Wade.
“I play with somebody if they feel left out at recess,” said Kennedi Mitchell.
For the past few weeks, Karen Seifert’s first-graders have been sharing their 12 days of kindness by doing good things for other people. This week, the class along with three other McFall classes, walked to Carveth Village where they sang Christmas songs to the residents. The students stood outside peering in through the windows at their audience lined up in chairs.
“I think they (Carveth residents) were happy. We got to sing songs to them and they probably weren’t used to having little kids around,” said Jacob Cowling.
“I felt kind of shy because I didn’t know any of those people. But it made me feel happy too,” said Wade.
Daley said she hopes it made the people happy. “It made me happy to help someone else and make them smile, but I didn’t know all the words to all the songs,” she said.
Each day, Seifert has a scale in her room. One end of the scale has a bucket students try to fill with kindness. If they get the scale to tip with kindness by the end of the day, they get to put a present under their tree and each present includes a special act of kindness for the class to do together.
In addition to singing carols at Carveth Village, they’ve also made special cards for McFall Principal Jon Washburn, sang a song to their gym teacher Michelle DeVries thanking her for keeping them strong, and delivered candy canes to people who work hard at their school.
“I want them to remember to be kind to everyone and do things to help others,” said Seifert. "It's something everyone can do."
Emerson Schmidt said he tries to say please and thank you and that brings joy to Santa.
Isabelle Redick said she likes doing the acts of kindness especially now during the holidays. “But you should do it every single day,” she said.