April 1, 2019

Dear Mill Pond Students and Families,

I am very excited to write you about our key value for the month of April, which is kindness. Have you heard that this year, not only are we learning about & focusing on kindness at Mill Pond, the town of Westborough is participating in a Kindness week April 7th-13th. There will be many activities happening around town that focus on kindness. By now you know kindness is extremely important and essential at Mill Pond. Just today, I saw a girl sitting by herself at lunch and another girl who did not know her, walk over to her table and ask her to come sit with she and four of her friends. I heard a student compliment another student’s project. I see and hear kindness every day at Mill Pond! Does that mean everyone is kind all of the time? No, we all make mistakes and do or say something unkind, or we miss an opportunity where we could have been kind and we weren’t.

As we say in our Mill Pond Touch Stone, “Learning and caring is what we do here!” Those are not just words we say, they are words we need to put into action. Being kind is being caring. So this month, I ask all of you to accept a kindness challenge. I want each of you to set a goal for yourself related to kindness. Write it down somewhere where you will see it and meet your goal. For example, you might set a goal to say or do a kind thing each day this month. Someone else might set a goal to do or say something kind to someone that they don’t know well. Another person might set a goal to do ten acts of kindness by the end of the week. Be creative, be committed, and be kind! Please share your goal with a trusted adult in your life at home and/or at school. Tell the person what your goal is and update that person on your progress as you strive to meet your goal. Challenge that person to accept the kindness challenge too.

There are many famous quotes about kindness. One of my favorites is a quote by Mother Teresa. For those of you who don’t know who she is, Mother Teresa spent her life doing and giving to others. Mother Teresa said, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless”. What do you think she meant by that? I think she meant that when we say kind things to others the positive impact is greater than we can imagine. Our kind words get replayed in people’s heads. Hopefully it helps that person feel even better about themselves and stays with that person forever.

It is easy to be kind to our friends and those that are kind to us. It takes a strong person to be kind to people that are less familiar or someone who may be viewed as being different. You never know when someone is having a bad day or experiencing a challenge and your small act of kindness may be the best part of their day. The power of kindness is endless! Maybe your kindness will teach someone else how to be kind and they will pass kindness on to yet another. Keep spreading the kindness through the month of April and beyond....

Sincerely,

Ms. Kovaleski