Get caught being kind

Students at Julius A .Wendt Elementary

School kicked off the school year with their first

assembly promoting kindness as a focus for character development in the month of September.

The fifth-grade class shared a skit on how sacrifice and sharing demonstrate kindness based on

the children’s book, “The Rainbow Fish.” Their

finished artwork is displayed in the hall multipurpose room corridor and showing ways we can

make sacrifices of ourselves to be kind to others.

Students are invited to participate in the kindness challenge and to “be caught being kind” and

as well as being recognized on the board.

Sacrifice is a pillar of the Medal of Honor character program used in the fifth grade classroom.

Kindness is a focus of the Conscious Discipline

model. Together the two programs teach students

the importance of becoming good citizens in the

classroom and be good learners. Each month educators at J.A . Wendt introduce a new theme based

on the Washington Standards for Social Emotional Learning (SEL).

The Washington SEL standards and benchmarks are broken into two focus areas of self and

social awareness, with six standards that are required to be taught in the classroom. By teaching

strategies of self and social awareness, management, self-efficacy, and social engagement students learn how to be more productive members in

the classroom and find strategies that assist them

in managing behaviors. “The purpose of the SEL

standards is to provide a framework identifying

observable development milestones for students,

recognizing that educators benefit from clear

definitions of skills and dispositions articulating how learners develop (Professional Educator

Standards Board, 2010. Standards, benchmarks

and indicators for the teacher certification process

[PDF]. Washington State Professional Educator

Standards Board. https://www.pesb.wa.gov/wpcontent/uploads/SELStandardsBenchmarksIndicatorsLongForm.pdf