Several members of North Elementary’s Kindness Crew traveled to each of the grade 2-4 classrooms the week of Oct. 24-28 to teach a lesson on empathy.
“Students watched a video about putting themselves in someone else’s shoes,” Mrs. Landsteiner, one of the Kindness Crew organizers, said. “After a class discussion, each student received a paper copy shoe and had to decorate the shoe to resemble him or herself. Like I told my class, include things that make you unique! We talked about including different holidays we celebrate, things that make us happy or sad, the people in our family, etc.
“One thing we hope all students take away from this first lesson is to be empathetic and not be too quick to judge someone else.”
Those North students who are members of the Kindness Crew includes: Blake Hinton, Isabella Vega, Cody Stensrud, Skyler Aburto Pillers, Vera Conlon, Reese Lee, Corey Hulke, Ryan Christensen, Beatrice Combs, Emelia Thompson, Paxton Thomas, Dustlyn Lingen, Mallory Coe, Nora Callahan, Candy Ortiz, Harper Bass, Leilany Barboza, Lydia Vorthems, Ara Ladie, Henry Menning, Archer Peters, Wesley Kienlen, Cameron Noble, Teagan Guentzel, Jason Alenuma, Valentine Ortega-Nielsen, Finn Koehler Sandborg, Greyson Brossart, Charlotte Borslein, Violet Rapacz, Ruby VanderLinden, Eleanora Turritin, Callie Aguilar, Laila Butterfield, Zoey Rothenberger, Ellie Suska, Lexy Vergara, and Leila Weiner.
About the Kindness Crew
The Kindness Crew is a new organization this school year, which came about through some inspiration Mrs. Landsteiner drew from a teacher she followed on Instagram.
“I brought the idea up to our PBIS team (last spring) and everyone loved it!,” Landsteiner said. “The Kindness Crew’s main goal is to spread kindness and empathy around North Elementary and to inspire others, not officially in the crew, to be kind.”
Students had to apply to be a part of the Kindness Crew and then the PBIS team, along with input from teachers, selected 38 students to be a part of the crew this year. The group then had a get-together before school started to create T-shirts and get to know everyone. On the first day of school, the members greeted students in the hallways and helped get students to the right classroom.
Moving forward, the Kindness Crew members will be called on to welcome new students to North and lead tours and they will teach more lessons to classrooms.
