The kindness bulletin board at Fayette Central School. Submitted photo

Melissa Savage’s first grade class spreading kindness this month. Submitted photo

FAYETTE — First grade teacher, Melissa Savage at Fayette Central School is hoping to spread a bit more kindness this holiday season. Mrs. Savage created a bulletin board at the beginning of December with an activity each day that is meant to help spread kindness. She believes December is the best month as “The idea about teaching kids about kindness around Christmas time is to [help them] get back to the true meaning of Christmas.

“They have all been great activities!” she said when asked what her and her students’ favorite kindness activity has been so far. They have made small individual gifts for staff members such as janitor Jim, kitchen chef Mr. B, and Principal Morin. They have written letters to nursing home residents and made gifts for their parents.

When providing these gifts Savage prompts her students by asking them to think about how it made them feel and how it made the receiver feel. Her students have begun using the analogy from a story they read about “filling their buckets” to explain that the recipient was happy and has a “full bucket” thanks to their small act of kindness.

They have also made snowflakes to decorate the school and she mentioned that one of the most shocking reactions to one of the activities is the one that asks students to play with other friends during recess that they don’t usually play with. Savage mentions that students are nervous about this task and stepping outside of their comfort zone of playing with their usual friends. This however, is a great additional step that goes hand and hand with the Buddy Bench that sits on the playground.

Students mention that their favorite activity has been making gifts for their parents. The most challenging part has been playing with a new friend on the playground. Two students were seen coming very excitedly one morning and they headed straight to the kindness board to see what the day’s activity was.

Thank you to Mrs. Savage for bringing additional kindness to our first grade students at Fayette Central School!