The Kindness Connection: 2012 - 2013

During the 2012 - 2013 school year, we celebrated The Kindness Connection Day (formerly named Compliment Day) on January 18, 2013. Our theme for the year was based on Nancy Elizabeth Wallace's book entitled The Kindness Quilt. On Community Reading Day on November 9, 2012, readers from the community read this book to all classes in order to introduce this year's theme of connecting acts of kindness in the form of a quilt.

After reading the books, Community Readers brainstormed different kindness ideas with the students. The community readers then signed the inside cover of these books along with each student in the classroom, which served as a pledge for each child to always try their best to be kind to others. Following Community Readers' Day, teachers encouraged their students to think of acts of kindness that they have done for others as well as acts of kindness that have been done to them.

On Wednesday, November 14, 2012 at approximately 11:05 AM, the entire school stopped what they were doing to participate in the Kindness Connection Writing Day. At this time, students began a special Writer’s Workshop where each student wrote about a time when someone else acted kindly toward them. Some of these writing pieces were displayed in the hallways, on classroom walls, or made into classroom books.

For the two-week period from Monday, November 26, 2012 to Friday, December 7, 2012, Mrs. Greene introduced the idea of the quilt to all students during each classes' regularly scheduled art time. Since kindergarten students did not normally have art, Mrs. Greene schedule special times for them to come into art to make their quilt squares. During these two art classes, Mrs. Greene worked with the students to create first a rough draft of their quilt squares followed by a final version.

During the month of December, parent volunteers worked hard to create twenty-three quilts, one for each class, from the quilt squares made by each student and staff member. With their hard work, the quilts were completed quickly and the results were beautiful and inspiring!

During the week of January 7th through January 11th, Houghton Elementary celebrated Kindness Connection Colors Week. Students and staff wore a different color every day of this week that corresponded to the colors of the school values of Respect, Responsibility, Kindness, Cooperation, and Honesty. On Monday, students and staff wore red to celebrate the school value of Respect. On Tuesday, students and staff wore orange to celebrate the school value of Responsibility. On Wednesday, students and staff wore yellow to celebrate the school value of Kindness. On Thursday, students and staff wore green to celebrate the school value of Cooperation. Finally, on Friday, students and staff wore blue to celebrate the school value of Honesty.

On Kindness Connection Day, January 18, 2013, all students, staff, and parents gathered together in the Houghton gymnasium for an assembly. Each grade wore a different color in the same way as they did for the Peace Pole Ceremony earlier in the year. Due to the way they were seated on the gym floor, students created a rainbow with their clothing. During this assembly, the school recognized parent volunteers for their hard work, watched a slideshow of students engaging in many acts of kindness, and revealed the quilts for all to see. The assembly was a big success with many parents in attendance! The slideshow below was shown at this event and is uploaded onto this website for your viewing pleasure!

During the 2016 - 2017 school year, these quilts were taken down off the walls of Houghton Elementary's library to be displayed on bulletin boards around the school during the month of January to get our children ready for our Kindness Connection Week. After the month of January, these quilts were shared with the Sterling Senior Center and the Conant Public Library in Sterling. They were displayed in these locations so that patrons could see all of the kind acts done by students at Houghton Elementary School! Thank you for sharing the pictures below with us, Conant Public Library!

The pictures below show each of the twenty-three class quilts beginning with kindergarten and ending with the fourth grade quilts. There are two sizes of pictures for each quilt. The first one is a small picture of the quilt in order to view the quilt as a whole and the second one is a large picture in order to better view the individual quilt squares. You can also click on any of the pictures in order to see the whole quilt on a bigger scale.

Kindergarten

Mrs. Fisette's Class

Mrs. Knipe's Class

Miss Morris' Class

Mrs. O'Malley's Class

First Grade

Mrs. Duchesneau's Class

Miss Miller's Class

Mrs. Shaw's Class

Mrs. Simons' Class

Mrs. Thibeault's Class

Second Grade

Mrs. Daly's Class

Mrs. Dill's Class

Mrs. Dorogi's Class

Mrs. Stoever's Class

Mr. Wyrebek's Class

Third Grade

Mrs. Beliveau's Class

Miss DeFeudis' Class

Mrs. Keeffe's Class

Mrs. LeBouf/Miss Shilale's Class

Mrs. Shayler's Class

Fourth Grade

Mrs. Freniere/Sullivan's Class

Mrs. Miller's Class

Mrs. M. Sullivan's Class

Mrs. Wilder's Class