How do you thrive in a year full of closings, canceled trips, and constant changes? Try spreading kindness to as many people as possible. It all started with a dream that Allendale Christian 5th-grade students would spread kindness to leaders in their country, state, and city. From there, it grew to so much more: students took the lead to create something beautiful. They were inspired by their class novel, R.J. Palacio’s Wonder. The book’s theme was to always “choose kind,” and the class focused on the contagious nature of kindness. As this newspaper article captures, the 5th graders in Miss Kirchhoff and Mr. Vandenberg’s class were determined to spread this fruit of the spirit as they live into their deep hope: “to be part of God’s restoration team for the greater good of His glory in the classroom, creation, and community as you use your heart, soul and mind.”

Dear ___________,
Hi my name is Logan and I am a 5th grade student and I want to tell you about kindness. Kindness is very important because it can make someone's day. We are doing this so that people will be happy while bad stuff is happening in the world. We started writing i n the middle of November 2020. We got inspired to spread kindness by a book called Wonder by RJ Palacio. The meaning of the book at least to me is to spread kindness to anyone even if they are mean to you. So that's why we are trying to spread kindness. We have l earned that kindness has a domino effect for example, you do something nice to a person and then that person will do something nice to another person too. We have been sending letters to local people and organizations and we also delivered letters to the Allendale Fire Department. Kindness means a lot to me and it is easy to be kind and nice to people. I like it when people are kind to each other. It doesn’t make sense to me when people are mean to each other. We are praying for you this school year. Have a good day.

Sincerely,
Logan, an ACS 5th grade student

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Dear ___________,
Hi, I'm Kitrah. I'm a student at Allendale Christian School in Allendale, Michigan. My class and I have an initiative called Choose Kind → Spread Kind. It’s a big domino
effect because it spreads and hits most everyone and keeps on spreading. I love how it has spread all over Michigan and even to the president. We got a letter from our governor on February,3,2021 we each got a letter personally from her! We anticipate every arrival of each letter that will return to us. So we hope you will write back too! I
learned everybody needs kindness through these tough times. Kindness is so important everybody should receive it, and give it, it’s such a special thing you can share with someone. Below are a few simple steps to make something you can use to spread kindness.

Supplies: Mason jar (any size), paint, markers or a pen, strips of paper (colorful strips are optional), and then print out a sticker that has something to do with kindness (mine says sprinkle kindness like confetti). It’s also optional to have a sticker.
Step 1: Paint the inside of your jar.
Step 2: While your paint is drying, with your markers write kind things you can do for others on the strips of paper.
Step 3: Once your jar is dry put the strips of paper that have kind words on them in thejar.
Step 4: If you choose to have a sticker put it on the outside of your jar.
Step 5: Pull one out each day and do what it says.
Step 6: Enjoy :)

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Remember we are continuously praying God is guiding you. We hope you will do a
little act of kindness. And remember to keep smiling! (:

Sincerely,
Kitrah

Dear __________________,
Hi! I’m Eden, a 5th grader at Allendale Christian School. As you maybe know, we have a initiative called Choose Kind → Spread Kind. We started this initiative in November. Writing these letters is one of my favorite parts of the day because it shows how they affected the people we sent it to. We do it to spread kindness during this difficult time of Covid 19. So far, our initiative letters have reached local leaders, teachers in our school, other fifth graders all around the USA, the president and vice president, and other people/businesses we know. We have received letters from almost all of these people. We write the letters with our teacher, Mr.V, In our classroom. It all started with his unexpected dream of writing to the president, and hearing back from him. It also came from the book Wonder. From there, it went all around the USA. Maybe you can join our community of kindness. Remember that God i s i n control, that He l oves you, and that He is with you. We are praying for you through this tough time of Covid-19. I hope you learn new things this year. Remember to be strong. I hope our kindness is as contagious as Covid-19!

Sincerely,
Eden

(P.S. Please right back!!!)

(P.P.S. Try to be kind today! Suggestions: give some encouraging words to others, let someone important to you know how much you appreciate them, compliment others, donate food and/or clothes, hold open a door for a stranger, or any other way you can come up with!)

Remember to smile under your mask!!!

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Dear ___________,

Hi I am a 10 year old fifth grader who loves to dance and does dance every night of the week except Friday. Dancing is my passion. I love i t. The type of dances I do is tap, jazz, ballet, hiphop, and personally my favorite contemporary. The dance studio I go to is Ohana Dance Company. We as fifth grade students have been learning about Kindness since the middle of November. We are doing a domino effect on Kindness. We hope you continue this effect on Kindness. We think Kindness is super important. What I have learned about Kindness so far is that no matter what the cost is, choose to be Kind. We have been writing to community members so far. We also have been writing to the president and other leaders too. When we started school we read the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio. I personally loved the book. Now the class theme is Kindness. Just to let you know we are always praying for you. We hope you have a great day.

Sincerely,
Kendell D,
A ACS fifth grade student

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Dear ___________,

Kindness means a lot. I’m Leah, and I’m a fifth grader at ACS. We, as a fifth grade class, wanted to spread some kindness to you. We are trying to encourage people by sending letters to them, and we wanted to write to you. We are doing this because kindness is important, and a small act of kindness can brighten someone’s day, so that they might spread kindness to others. We read Wonder by R.J. Palacio. We started learning about kindness around the middle of November. We l earned about the results of being kind versus the results of being unkind. We also talked about how to react with kindness, whether or not they are being kind to you. As the Golden Rule says, “Treat others as you want to be treated.” This does not mean to treat others the way they are treating you, but treat others with kindness. So we want to spread kindness. We learned about how kindness is like dominoes, so we wanted to be the first domino in the Domino Chain of Kindness. We pray that God guides you in your thoughts, words, and deeds. We want to inspire you to treat others with kindness. We know that the pandemic is tiring, with social distancing and no visiting other people. We’re hoping to reach out and help people on the inside by encouraging as many people as we can. We hope that you stay strong in faith and hope as Covid-19 spreads. We want to help. We want to encourage. We want to thank all those on the front lines - and also those who aren’t, for your acceptance of social distancing and your bravery i n facing Covid. We pray that Covid goes away or even just dies down some, because Covid is hard, for those i n direct contact and those who aren’t. We hope that you spread kindness and encouragement to everyone you can. Even those you disagree with. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:39. Love your friends. Love your enemies. Love your brothers, sisters, everyone. Love i s important. You do not try to stop hate with more hate, as you don’t stop fire with more fire. Instead, douse hate with love. Don’t add fuel to the fire. Add love. Add kindness, joy, and peace. Encourage. Believe. Because here is the truth we need to hear: God can turn that I can’t into a whole-hearted I can! God can do everything. And God wants us to love. So, encourage others. Even though times are hard. It may seem like all fun things with other people are coming to an end. But that’s not true. Remember: “If an ending’s not good, i t’s not The End.” (How To Train Your Dragon: How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury)

In the hope that you will spread kindness,
Leah E., Allendale Christian School 5th grader

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