Category Archives: School

Jan7

Tag! You’re It! Be a Kind Agent with Me

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Tag! You’re It! Be a Kind Agent with Me

Random acts of kindness do not take a lot of time, energy or money — all it takes is your heart. A random act of kindness can make someone’s day. If a person is having a sad or bad day, it could make their day better. If a person is already having a good day, it could turn it into an awesome day!

My mom showed me an article about a new initiative in her Chatelaine magazine called Kindcycle , which got us really excited. The idea behind KindCycle is that giving an act of kindness not only makes the person who receives the kind act feel good, but it also inspires them to do something kind for another person. It’s like playing tag, when you get tagged with an act of kindness it’s like saying “you’re it!” Now you have to go out and tag another person with an act of kindness. This could be the biggest game of tag you’ve ever played! For example, if I do something kind for someone, that person might do something kind for another person and then maybe that other person might tag somebody else with a kind act maybe on the other side of the world and it will keep going and become a worldwide game of kindness tag. Cool, right?

Chatelaine‘s goal is to reach 20 million random acts of kindness, but I bet a whole lot more than 20 million acts can be reached if all of us kids become Kind Agents too. I made a list of more than 50 ideas of random acts of kindness for kids — most of them don’t cost money and are about being thoughtful, creative and kind (of course).  Adults can do these too! I saw this quote about kindness that I really liked:

“Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.”~ Seneca

I think that that is so true. I think that we can do our random acts of kindness for each other and for animals and the environment too.  Imagine how much good we can do as Kind Agents. By being an Agent of Kindness, you are also being an Agent of Change.

Chatelaine made a sheet of printable cut-out cards that will help to keep the cycle of kindness moving forward. Print them out and hand them out as you do your acts of kindness so that they will join us as a Kind Agent. Kind, you’re it!

 

50+ Ideas for Kid Kind Agents

  1. Give someone a compliment.
  2. Help someone carry their groceries.
  3. Clear the table for your mom so she can relax after dinner.
  4. Call a family member for no reason other than just to say “hello”.
  5. Give a thank you card to someone who is not expecting it.
  6. Offer to help someone with their work at school.
  7. Ask someone to play with you if they’re alone.
  8. Congratulate someone on the presentation they did.
  9. If someone is having a bad day, talk to them or just listen to them.
  10. At school if someone lost something, try to help them find it.
  11. Talk to the cashier or just smile at them, ask them how their day is.
  12. Write a note to your friend, teacher or principal — just because.
  13. Hold the door open.
  14. Shovel snow for your neighbour.
  15. Donate your toys.
  16. Write a letter to your parents to tell them how special they are.
  17. Help a new student settle in at school
  18. Tell your parents you want to help them do the laundry or clean the house.
  19. Pick up litter at school.
  20. Pick up litter wherever and whenever you see it.
  21. Let your neighbours know when you are going to go drop things off at the recycling centre and offer to take what they have to save them a trip.
  22. Collect coupons for things that you don’t use and give them to someone who needs it. Families with babies always need diapers.
  23. Go through your movies, books and toys and donate it to someone who will enjoy it.
  24. Collect your toys, movies, clothes and books and donate them to a organization.
  25. Take toys, clothes, books and movies that are still in really good condition to Once Upon A Child. They will buy them from you and then you can donate the money to an organization or buy something like Tim Hortons gift cards and randomly give them to people.
  26. Make a pencil holder and fill them with with pencils for your classroom so that if one of your classmates lost or forgot theirs they have one.
  27. If there’s someone who inspires you, or did something you like (like an author of a book), write them a note to show them your appreciation.
  28. When your mom or dad is busy making your breakfast, surprise them by making your bed AND make their bed too!
  29. Clean up your room without being asked.
  30. Make eco-friendly cleaning supplies with your mom.
  31. You can be a mother’s helper and play with a toddler so the mom can relax.
  32. Get packs of bubbles and hand them out to little kids at the park.
  33. Help your mom do stuff around the house so that she dosen’t have to do it all alone.
  34. Create an art piece or picture and give it to a family member.
  35. When you bake cookies take some to your neighbor.
  36. Give the mailman a gift card for coffee or hot chocolate to warm up after delivering the mail in the winter.
  37. Send a present to someone you know who lives far away.
  38. Leave a small gift for the cashier that you see all the time at the grocery store, post office or coffee shop.
  39. Find a cause that you believe in and do something.
  40. Help someone who is having a hard time with school work.
  41. When you send a card to someone, include a blank thank you card with a stamp and a envelope so that that person can write a thank you card to someone else.
  42. Organize your friends to clean up your neighborhood park or schoolyard.
  43. Offer to return a shopping cart to the store for someone loading their car.
  44. When you go to the mall or grocery store with your mom or dad bring a roll of stickers and give them to young kids you meet.
  45. Have thank you cards ready with you when you’re out so that you can leave them for somebody who did something nice for you.
  46. At school, organize a game for younger kids and play with them.
  47. When you’re finished with a book or magazine give them to a friend that would like them.
  48. Make a new friend.
  49. Eat lunch with somebody that you don’t usually eat lunch with.
  50. Always use your manners — people appreciate it when you say please and thank you.
  51. Leave nice comments on someone’s blog that you enjoy reading.
  52. Put a bird-feeder in your backyard.
  53. Start a kindness club and find new ways to be kind.
  54. When you’re at the grocery store with your mom, ask if you can pick out your dad’s favourite chocolate bar and surprise him with it when he gets home from work.
  55. When you’re out with your dad, ask if you can buy some flowers for your mom, just because.
  56. Hide little love notes around the house for your parents to find (you can leave them under their pillow, in their sock drawer, with the pots and pans or in the linen closet.
  57. Share information about a cause or an organization that you believe in. They always need help to get the word out.
  58. Do or buy something with some of your allowance or birthday money for someone special. Take your parents out for ice cream. Make a donation. Buy a gift card for someone you want to say a special thank you to.
  59. When you’re at the library, pick out a book for your mom or dad that you think that they’ll enjoy. Write a note to tell them why you chose it for them.

Here is a beautiful piece of art by Kathleen Tennant to inspire your quest as a KInd Agent.

 

Note: If you’re over 18 years old, you can officially register at www.kindcycle.ca. (it’s free!) and $100 will be donated in your name to the Canadian Women’s Foundation by the Lise Watier Foundation to support programs across Canada that move women and girls out of poverty, out of violence and into confidence.

 

Jan3

I can be more eco-friendly in 2013. You can too.

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I can be more eco-friendly in 2013. You can too.

 How to Create Less Garbage and Create More Change

Happy New Year! All of us make new year’s resolutions – things that we are going to do better or different when a new year begins – and mine is to be more eco-friendly and to help the environment in many, many ways. I think that this will be one of my New Year’s Resolutions for a long time. If your resolution is the same as mine -  awesome. If not, it would be great to make it one of your goals. We need everybody to take care of the  environment. We need to do this together. Every little thing that we each do will add up to make a huge difference in the world.

To help get you and your family started, here are some things that I put together for you. These are ways we can create less garbage and create more change.

1. Recycling all around the house.

Other than the kitchen, we have the most garbage in the bathroom.  There’s so much stuff that we throw out in the bathroom that is not garbage at all. None of these things is garbage and should be disposed of in an eco way:  hair (green bin), toothpaste/ soapboxes (blue bin), cotton balls (green bin), toilet paper rolls (blue bin), tissue (green bin), empty cans and bottles (blue bin).

There’s a easy and simple way to turn your bathroom garbage can into a recycling center. To do that you need a big bin and get 3 smaller containers to fit into the big one. Then label them green bin, recycling bin and garbage.  This makes it really clear and simple.

2. Not everything you throw out is garbage

Everyone knows that paper goes in the blue bin and so do cans, newspaper and other paper good, but not a lot of people know that batteries, styrofoam, ink and toner cartridges, and electronics can also be recycled.  In every city there is somewhere where you can take all those stuff to recycle them!  Recycle things that are unwanted, things that don’t work, Recycle it!

If you have old toys, clothes that don’t fit anymore. Books that you don’t want, donate them!  Maybe you need things but someone else does! I have donated to a couple of charities, I donated baby blankets and towels to the vet to make the pets more comfortable.

Stuffed toys are not accepted  by most donation places because they say  that they are full of germs. I found a great solution to this and I donated a huge box of  my stuffed animals to the humane society. I was happy to give them all the dogs there something to play and sleep with.

3. Create a Recycling Centre

There are so many things that need to be recycled that can’t go in the recycling bin Things like: batteries, styrofoam, small electronics, clothing, books and toys. Find a space in your garage to make a recycling centre with bins that are labeled for each. When the bin is full, take it to the depot in your community for proper and safe disposal.

4. Make Eco choices when purchasing your school and work supplies.

There are a lot of products that are eco-friendly for school and work. You can buy recycled notebooks, biodegradeable pens and pencils, pencil cases made from recycled water bottles. When you are shopping look for  the recycled symbol- the triangle made for the 3 r’s- and make an ‘eco’ choice.

5.  Share what you are doing to help the environment. Inspire people to join you.

Tell your family, friends, neighbors and teachers what you are doing and they might be inspired to join you. Then they might pass it on and then those people will pass it on and it will keep going. This is how we can all make a difference.

And my other New Year’s Resolution for 2013 is this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sep12

Eco Book Review: The Eco Student’s Guide To Being Green At School

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Eco Book Review: The Eco Student’s Guide To Being Green At School

I took this book out of the library at school. Obviously, it’s an eco book. It’s by J. Angelique Johnson. This is what I learned from this book:

1. Use a task light, like a lamp, when possible. it uses a lot less energy than overhead lighting and it’s better for your eyes.

2. Use both sides of paper. When you use both sides you aren’t wasting the paper.

3. Use recycled toilet paper. It’s keeps water’s clean, the chemicals used to bleach white toilet paper are left out. Those are bad for the water.

4. Hang window coverings on south facing walls. Close them to keep cool during summer months. Keep them open to stay warm in winter.

5. Don’t throw away paint. You can cut down on waste by scraping unused paint back into the container.

6. If a piece of clothing is too small, you can donate them or give them to someone else. You can also use an old t-shirt as a rag to clean with. Reuse things to keep them out of the garbage and landfill.

7. Talk to your teachers, principals and friends. Encourage everybody to stop harming the environment and do things to help it. Create an Eco Team. Ask them to go green by making your schools eco-friendly.

I really liked this book because it teaches you in a fun and creative way that it is easy and cool to be eco-friendly at school. The Illustrator is Kyle Poling. His pictures also tell the story and teach the lessons.

I would recommend this book for people who want to help their school or people who are interested in the environment. The book is easy to understand. It’s good for any reading level.

The author also wrote a book called The Eco Family Guide To Being Green. I bet it’s a really good book too!

You can find this book in your school or neighbourhood library. Remember all of these facts when you’re going to school. Hey, it’s cool to be eco-friendly at school. Yes, I made up that rhyme.

Aug24

How my love for animals taught me about caring for the environment

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How my love for animals taught me about caring for the environment

I just did an interview with the Toronto Sun! It will be in the newspaper next week! One of the questions she asked me was, “Why are you so passionate about eco issues?” I thought a lot about this and want to share my answer with everybody. Here it is:

When I was a kid my favourite place was the zoo, and it still is. I’m going to zoo camp next week and I know it will be so fun! (I’ll post about it next week) At the zoo I was taught about how the animals relied on humans to help the environment. I wanted to help animals survive and make them have the best life because I love animals so much. I started learning about what we can do to help save the animals and the environment at the same time, and I learned learned about the 3 main rule: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. The animals aren’t the ones polluting and littering – humans are. The animals can’t recycle and can’t clean up – we can and we have to make the world better for them and us.

Last year in school I was on the Eco Team! We went around to all the classrooms and checked if they sorted their garbage the right way. It was really fun! We also had a assembly where the Eco Team held up items that were from the green bin, blue bin and garbage. We picked people from the students in the audience to put that item in the right bin and it taught them what item goes in which bin. The Eco Team made recycling fun! I really liked being on the Eco Team and helping my friends learn why and how to recycle. Now I’m doing that with my blog.

In June I started my blog for the same reason. I wanted to teach everyone about environment. On my blog I give tips that are easy to do at home and school. Through my blog I show passion, concern and tips and I hope that people will be inspired enough to do little things to help the environment. All the little things that people do add up and help save the environment.

Thanks for reading and if you have good tips on what we can all do to take care of our environment, please share it with me.

Aug21

“Kid takes up eco-blogging” – that’s me on Global News!

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“Kid takes up eco-blogging” – that’s me on Global News!

Thank you Minna Rhee and Leslie Roberts from Global News for including me on your show to talk about my blog and my eco school supplies.

Aug20

Back To School Eco Style!

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Back To School Eco Style!

School starts in 2 weeks!

My Mom and I went to Staples to buy school supplies, eco-friendly, of course.  If you know me or have read my blog you know that I really care about the environment. At Staples I got a list of all of the things that I will need for Grade 4 and we got most of what we needed and most of it is eco-friendly.

We went up and down the aisles with our list looking for the most eco-friendly choices.  They had a lot of options that were exactly what I was looking for. It made me happy to see so many eco supplies.

If I could make a suggestion, I would put all of the eco supplies in one place so it would be easier to find them.

Here are my favourite eco-friendly school supplies and what I like about each of them:

There’s my eco-friendly picks for back to school. While we were at Staples we saw that they have an awesome recycling program. I’m going to save that information for my next post.

Are you finished your back to school shopping? Tell me about your favourite  stuff.