The Giving Tree/Pot

My classroom has a garden theme this year (Miss Rose's Garden, couldn't pass that up!) As I mentioned I'm big on fostering a positive environment. I wanted something that would encourage my students to serve each other and notice random acts of kindness. This is what I came up with...

It is centered around Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree. For those who are not familiar with the book you can view a reading of it here.

I'm going to introduce the giving tree with a lesson during the first week of school. I'll start by reading the book to the class and having a discussion about it. I want to make a point that giving and doing things for other people makes you happy. I also want to talk about how we should do it without expecting recognition but how when someone does something nice for us it is nice to say thank you and recognize them (the boy doesn't say thank you so I want to point out we should).

Then I will introduce: Our Class Giving Tree

The point of the Giving Tree is when a student notices a classmate doing a random act of kindness they will take a leaf (taped onto the tree), write the name of the student and put it in...

Our Class Giving Pot

The pot is going to be pasted to a square empty tissue box. Every so often (haven't decided the exact time frame yet) I will do a drawing from the giving pot and the student(s) drawn will get a reward. I'm hoping this will encourage students to be kind and help each other out without the expectation of something but still being recognized sometimes. 

ideas for differences: I had considered making it so the student wrote what they saw the person doing as well, but I went for the smaller tree and leaves. 

That's the Giving Tree/Pot. Here's hoping it goes well!