Compliment Box
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Samantha Behne
First started in 1998, National Compliment Day is celebrated on January 24 each year. Everyone needs a little confidence booster from time to time, and this day is all about positivity.
This year our school celebrated with a kindness theme. We shared read-alouds of books about kindness and handed out compliment cards for the children to fill out. The goal was to make others smile, and it definitely worked. A small compliment goes a long way toward making others feel valued and seen. The children loved it!
With such a great response to the day, I decided to keep a good thing going. I put a compliment box in my room next to the tattle box to shift the focus to more positivity. The children were using the tattle box as a way to share things that bothered them, as well as things that made them happy. Now they have a place to focus on the happy. They know it is just as important, if not more so, to recognize how others make you feel and to make a concerted effort to be kind. This enhances children’s feelings of belonging, happiness, and self-worth.
We need more kindness in our lives, and what a great way to call attention to that. We tell our students, “Be the reason someone smiles today!”
Books on Kindness
Be Kind by Pat Zietlow Miller
The Power of One: Every Act of Kindness Counts by Trudy Ludwig
The Kindest Red: A Story of Hijab and Friendship by Ibtihaj Muhammad
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud
The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
I Walk with Vanessa: A Story About a Simple Act of Kindness by Kerascoët
