It’s National Random Acts of Kindness Week and for Greene County Elementary, students and staff expand kindness to the entire school year.

Principal Audrey Hinote tells Raccoon Valley Radio students are always helping each other, whether it is zipping up coats, tying shoes, or taking a friend to the nurse’s office if they get hurt. She points out examples of students showing kindness to staff.

“We have students that will help in the library at the end of the day, just kind of clean up and tidy up. When we were doing the unit in PE for skating, we had older kids stay for just a few minutes after their class to help the little kids put their skates on. That’s just kind of the atmosphere that we really have here at Greene County Elementary, just that family atmosphere, where everybody really helps each other.”     

Hinote notes that even for some of their behavior reward systems, when a student chooses to have lunch in the classroom or inside recess, that student will also choose to involve their entire class so everyone can benefit from the reward. She says all of these acts of kindness go back to one of their values of building and sustaining positive relationships, and one of those behaviors being kind.

“Everytime I see somebody show an act of kindness, whether it was asked of them or whether it’s just on their own, it helps me (to) know that our values here are really being lived out, they’re being modeled for the kids. It’s help me (to) know that it’s really hitting home with them.”

Hinote is hoping that these values are also being reflected at home as well.