Learning by doing

Melissa Anderson teaches at Kingsbury Elementary School in Redlands, California. She has discussed the value of random acts of kindness with her students, but decided a field trip might help them understand the concept better.

                                                                                                                            Cindy Yamanaka
So she organized a class trip to Citrus Plaza shopping center, where her students circled through the mall randomly giving shoppers gift cards to Cold Stone Creamery or Chick-fil-A restaurant or Jamba Juice. Students who were not inside watched reactions from outside the window. Afterward all the children gathered to discuss what they learned, and agreed random acts of kindness can improve both the giver and the receiver.