Ten Acts of Kindess

“Good morning, class,” Ms.Vega began. “Today I have a special social studies project for you to do. Please get into groups of three.” We love to work in groups because it allows us to work with our friends. The classroom quickly became filled with chattering and chairs clacking as everyone paired off into groups. The problem was that we had exactly nineteen kids in our class, so after everyone was paired into teams of their favorite people, one girl was left out. She was a quiet girl who often sat by herself at recess and lunch breaks. Her clothes were sometimes dirty, and her hair looked like she forgot to brush it in the morning. Today, I looked in her eyes and saw something I had never seen before: she was so sad. Ms. Vega was busily writing on the chalkboard and had not seen that Emily was left out. I thought about the butterfly and then decided to take my chair across the room to sit with Emily. “Hi, Emily,” I said softly, “can I be in a group with you? I think we could have a lot of fun.” Emily’s eyes became bright, and she smiled bigger than I had ever seen her smile before. “Alex, yes, I would love to be in a group with you!” While we arranged our books, notepads, and pencils, my friends Elena and Jenna showed up at our table, asking to join our group too! I looked at Emily to see if she was okay with a larger group. Happily, Emily quickly moved her chair over to make room for Jenna and Elena. When Ms. Vega completed writing the assignment on the board, she turned around to see if we had followed directions. “Elena, Jenna, Emily, and Alex, thank you for being creative and making a team of four so everyone was included in this project. It is good to see we have a class of children who care enough to make sure no one is left out.” Just then, Emily reached over and squeezed my hand. I looked down at our hands just to find she was holding the hand with the outline of the butterfly I had drawn that morning. I looked up at her and knew that we would all become great friends.