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Here at Kresson School, we are dedicated to making our school, and hopefully someday the world a better place. In our class, we are exploring character qualities which could help all of us to get along with each other.
We are examining these four "Themes to Live By": forgiveness, empathy, responsibility, and kindness. The four themes also relate to the four novels that we are reading.
***If you would like to share your stories of how people in your life have shown forgiveness, empathy, responsibility, or kindness, please visit our blog page: "Share your story for kids by kids."
Forgiveness
We discovered the theme of forgiveness while reading, The Captive by Joyce Hansen. The main character, Kofi, isn't willing to forgive someone who has wronged him. As Kofi grows, he learns to embrace his family's value of not repaying evil for evil and not dwelling on the past.
Here are two favorite quotes related to our theme:
Here are our student created projects for this theme:
Stories written by students about forgiveness:
Forgiveness Power Point by Lucas
Arianna wrote a biographical sketch about a real life person who exemplifies the character quality of forgiveness.
Ruby Bridges Biographical Sketch by Arianna
EmpathyWe learned about empathy while reading Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Annemarie shows empathy when she is able to put herself in other characters' places to understand how they feel.
Responsibility
We learned about the theme of taking responbility for your own actions when reading The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis. The evil characters in the novel did not take responsibility for their own actions. Instead, they blamed others for the evil that they did. One of the main characters, Digory, learned to take responsibility for his actions.
Here is a favorite quote about taking respsonsibility for making the world a better place. "I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his way. And no message could have been any clearer. If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and make a change." Michael Jackson
Theme essay about responsibility by Jason:
Responsibility essay by Aiden:
Biographical sketch by Lucas:
Power points:
Responsibility project by Kieran and Arianna
Responsibility project by Britiany
Kindness
In Bunnicula, Harold chooses to be kind and makes a new friend in the process. He chooses to find the good in someone else who is different from others.
Some kindness quotes:
Kindness Keynote Presentation by Isaiah
Keynote Presentation by Jahzourri
