Kindness Rock Gardens

As a follow-up to the theme Kindness Rocks, a number of classes helped to create Kindness Rock Gardens around Houghton Elementary School and the town of Sterling in the spring of 2017. There are fourteen gardens in total and each of these gardens include over twenty rocks and a sign that explains the function of these gardens. The sign reads: "We created this beautiful rock garden to help spread kindness in our community and the world. We loved decorating the rocks and hope they bring a little happiness to your day. Share your smile by adding your own rock to our garden and watch kindness grow!" Children had a wonderful time going on adventures to create these gardens and were able to get a better understanding of the purpose of these gardens after seeing all the rocks clustered together. The fourteen locations of the rocks gardens are as follows:

1. Houghton Elementary School Peace Pole

2. Houghton Elementary School Butterfly Garden

3. Sterling Senior Center

4. Peg's Pond

5. Sterling Village (Inside Courtyard)

6. Sterling Fire Department

7. Sterling Police Department

8. Sterling Post Office

9. Hope Chapel

10. Sterling Seventh-Day Adventist Church

11. First Church in Sterling

12. St. Richard of Chichester Church

13. Conant Public Library

14. Clearview Farms

Following the creation of the rock gardens, children were encouraged to adventure around Sterling with their parents in order to find these beautiful gardens. In order to help them do so, each child was sent home with a scavenger hunt during the last week of school. A PDF version of this scavenger hunt is located at the bottom of this page for easy printing. Feel free to print out a copy and go on an adventure around town!

Side One of Scavenger Hunt