From Marcela Castillo, Preschool Spanish teacher: "Kindness Week at the end of January was an excellent opportunity to extend our exploration and inquiry into our current Unit of Inquiry, "Friendship, exclusion, and inclusion" (under the transdisciplinary theme "Who We Are"). Preschool Spanish students demonstrated in many ways what it means to be kind — how it looks and how it feels.

We had a learning experience called "El tarro de la amabilidad."  Working together as a team, the class had to fill the jar with "acts of kindness." These acts were represented by pom poms. Each time the students did something kind, they would put a pom pom in the jar. Our goal was to fill the "tarro de la amabilidad."

During this unit, we integrated language and math into the learning experience. Students expanded their vocabulary by making sentences in Spanish to describe their acts of kindness. They also used their math skills to count the number of pom poms in the jar, to estimate how many more they would need to fill the jar, and to sort by color and size.

On February 10, our jar was full, and we had a party to celebrate! We had lights, music, and party hats and glasses. We also created Valentines that celebrated kindness.

The students were really motivated to do kind actions and put the pom poms in the jar. They are starting to be more aware of what it means to be kind and why being kind is important when we are making friends and building relationships.

Consuelo and I are very proud of how our students committed to their own learning, and completed so many acts of kindness!"