Dear Third Street Families,
As you know, Third Street has been piloting a program this year called Making Caring Common, which was created at Harvard University and aims to foster a positive, caring culture of kindness in schools. We’ve worked hard to create a Making Caring Common community both inside and outside of the classroom and wanted to update you all! Kudos to our amazing teacher advisors – Ms. Hetty Lee and Ms. Clara Hong who have given their time and energy to make sure this program is a success. Together, they created the “Kindness Challenge,” which culminated in a school-wide pep rally featuring members of the Los Angeles Rams. It was an incredible event and was covered on KABC, KCBS, KCAL and KTLA. In addition to creating other activities, they’ve helped the teachers implement the Making Caring Common lesson plans into their respective classrooms. We also want to thank all of our incredible teachers for supporting this program and teaching these lessons to their students to ensure that Third Street is known for its academics and for being a kind, caring community. We also want to give a shout out to our amazing media spokesperson, Ms. Susan Lee, whose teaching philosophy aligns perfectly with the program. Ms. Lee and her wonderful 4th grade class were featured on KTLA and KNBC. And our principal, Ms. Helen Lee has been one of our strongest advocates, ensuring that this program continues to be a priority this year and supporting the following initiatives. Making Caring Common Student Council We formed a Making Caring Common Student Council, composed of select students from every 4th and 5th grade class. We want to congratulate our council students who model kindness daily: Livy Ganzli, Zuri Dingle, Emilia Haver, Arabella Wilcox-Esada, Philo Shaw, Micah Epstein, Sophia Evans, David Ruiz, Avery Brettschnieider, Grace Song, Aria Uttamchandani, Abigail Lee, Ishaan Banshata, Olive Gray, and Ella Choi. Among their responsibilities, a student council member starts off the week with “Kindness Mondays” over the loudspeaker to all the classrooms. Please let your children know that if they are having any problems or just want to talk to someone, they should find one of these outstanding students. Kindness Cards This month, we also kicked off our Kindness Cards Creations. Retired LAUSD teacher, Ms. Cindy Berger, has been generously volunteering her time to help our 3rd – 5th grade classes create kindness cards for community leaders, including firemen, policemen, hospital workers, etc. Ms. Berger will be coming to our school over the next few months, and this will reinforce the importance of kindness by thanking others for their service. Circle of Concern In February, the teachers will be talking about the “Circle of Concern” in classrooms. To complement this messaging, we encourage you to do the following activity at home: Expand your child's circle of concern
Almost all children care about a small circle of families and friends. To help them expand their circle of concern, parents can encourage children to consider the feelings of those who may be vulnerable, such as a new child at school or a child experiencing some family trouble.
Give children some simple ideas for taking action, like comforting a classmate who was teased or reaching out to a new student.
Also, emphasize with your child the importance of really listening to others.
We are hoping to announce some other exciting partnerships in the weeks ahead and look forward to your continued support in helping to grow Making Caring Common even further. Thank you!
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