I usually start this project earlier in the year. This year has been rather difficult on many levels. This past week I started collecting “Random Acts of Kindness” from my students. The acts can be just about anything (walking quietly in the hall, helping another student, sitting quietly, or paying attention during a group less, etc.). About the only thing I require is the students cannot tell on themself, somebody else needs to report their act of kindness. I make a poster and each time an act of kindness is reported to me I write or if I am busy and can’t stop right then I have the student write the child’s name on the heart and it is glued on the poster. In the beginning until things get going I'm usually the only one reporting.
I organize the hearts in rows of 5’s or 10’s depending on the size of paper I have available. When there are 10 hearts on the poster I circle them. It helps the children learn place value and makes it easier to count the hearts. I like to end the project somewhere around the 100th day of school but, as in the case this year, we will be working on the chart until we have reached 100 Random Acts of Kindness.