CARBONDALE (WSIL) -- Students have been out of school due to COVID-19, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be recognized for their efforts in showing others kindness.
WSIL has chosen the February winners of our Classroom Kindness Challenge -- Mrs. Liss's fifth grade class from Lewis Elementary School in Carbondale.
Fifth grade teacher Jennifer Liss says each morning her class would hold a meeting, to start the day off on the right foot.
"And we would start every meeting with compliments, but then when I saw your contest, we shifted the focus to kindness."
Liss took our contest guidelines and ran with them.
"Your bingo board, we did every activity on there, and it just gave us additional ideas, to build on really what we'd already been focusing during the year."
They even improved the checklist for the Classroom Kindness Challenge by creating a poster filled with compliments that students had written about each other.
"I'm certainly not the only teacher to do it. Every child writes down everybody else's name, and I'm the only one who sees the paper, and they write one nice thing about each person, and it has to be genuine."
Liss welcomed a new student this year, Kahmi Buen, who thrived in the welcoming environment her class created. Before students were sent to work from home, Kahmi was trying to take kindness outside the school walls.
"She already had an appointment scheduled with our principal. She was trying to start an organization at school called 'Change for Change,' and it was entirely her idea," said Liss.
"Actually, it started with a book I had. It was a book about how to start donating," explained Buen.
Kahmi and some of her friends had planned on organizing donations for charity.
"And we would go around each classroom and ask if anyone wanted to donate, and every month we'd have a cause, and at the end of that month, we would go and see if they wanted the money," said Buen.
Kahmi says she hopes to continue her donation efforts when she's back in the classroom. She wants to help causes such as animal adoption, autism awareness, and school funding.
To see past winners and their stories, search "Classroom Kindness Challenge" here on our website.
