A WEB WOVEN FROM KINDNESS

For this group activity we start by explaining we are going to build our own 'blue room spider web'. The children are always interested right from the get go. I grab the spool of blue yarn and let them know that they can only pass on the yarn to someone by calling their name and then they have to give them a compliment (we explain that this is saying something nice about someone). I start off by picking someone that may be having a rough day or I just feel could use the first pick me up. Every year the compliments are different, some years it's all mostly "I like your shirt or shoes" type comments and some years, like this one, the kids are a little more open to exposing themselves and dig a little deeper. It was a wonderful thing to hear them passing the yarn and calling out a friends name and telling them they love them. This definitely needs my help to facilitate, I take the yarn through the middle to the next person receiving both the compliment and the next part of the web, and it usually requires me to constantly reminders children to hold their part of the yarn still and don't pull it or they will break the web. I've had a great amount of luck with this activity every year though. The kids get another tie in to our arachnid theme but more importantly they all see the value in their kindness.

This picture is so not website worthy but hey, it's late. And that's the only one I have. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit :-)