The Kindness Quilt

We liked, good message

Our daily lives consists of interactions with others plus conversations within ourselves about who we are, what we value and how that governs the actions we choose. Emotions influence us and shape what we think and how we act. The way we engage with others affects how they respond and listen to us. Kindness is the WD40© of human relationships.Nancy Elizabeth Wallace wrote and illustrated The Kindness Quilt it uses our love for quilts to help readers see how individual acts of kindness can blanket a classroom, school and community to yield increased acceptance, tolerance and happiness. When kindness becomes a group endeavor, the benefits multiply.In the story, the teacher proposes that students commit to performing acts of kindness. When they complete the project they share their experiences in a "do-and-draw-and-share Kindness Project." The children do a variety of deeds and when they gather their reports one child exclaims that it looks like a quilt block. As the kindnesses increase their "quilt" grows larger. It outgrows the classroom bulletin board and expands to the hall. Soon other classes join and "the kindness kept growing and growing and growing."Readers will certainly get the point that kindness begets kindness.Adoption-attuned (AQ) Lens: Most of us learned that the best way to have a friend is to be a friend. The Kindness Quilt shows readers how "being" a friend can look as well as how it can multiply. Adopted children benefit from the guidance of family, teachers, etc on how to resist any adoption-connected negativity which they experience. Kindness is certainly an important habit for them to include in their "tool box" of social skills.The quilt also serves as a multi-layered metaphor for creating beauty from diverse pieces. Variations in color, size, texture, etc., ENHANCES the design. This is a healthy and reassuring message for our kids.--Gayle H. Swift, ABC, Adoption & Me: A Multicultural Picture Book"

I discovered this book at the Dallas Public Library and checked it out to read to the kindergarten class that I helped in. They loved the story and so did the teacher who taught the class. I encouraged the school librarian to add the book to the library's collection. I also added the title to my own bookshelves.Last year I was the acting librarian at the school for the Spring semester. I decided to celebrate kindness week in the library. I read the book to all the classes from kinder through fourth grade. I provided the kids with paper squares of either pale blue or white and had them draw their own acts of kindness. One of the students asked if this was going to be a school wide quilt. I told him I would invite the Pre K kids to join in so that it would be. I loaned their instructor my copy of the book and also gave her quilt squares. I taped the squares up in a quilt pattern on the walls under the library windows. For the remainder of the semester our students were so proud of their kindness quilt!If you work with kids, you need this book! I absolutely love it!

This is a great book for my preschool class! The kids loved it and we made a kindness quilt of our own.

We had kindness week in school. We read the book and did activities to so kindness, peace, caring to others.

Love the book. Great way to reach kindness. But on the Kindle the print is to small to be able to read it to children while meeting them enjoy the pictures. Other books have included a way to make the text more readable.My grandchildren live all over the country and taking attacks of books to read them is not a good option, so I have lived begin able to take favorites and new books on my kindle. Wish all had options for easier sharing.

This is an excellent story to use with children to teach about kindness.

A very nice story to help children learn about being kind. My preschool age granddaughters liked it and wanted to hear it again. It ends abruptly and needed another line or the words, The End, to finish up.

Shame there isn’t a British version of this highly Americanised story. It’s an American story so what should I expect. Nice message but there are others out there with superior illustrations and make more sense to the typical British child.

I love books that teach children strong values, and both my grandchildren enjoyed this

Bought this book for a lesson on kindness in a kindergarten class and it was fantastic! The kids loved the story and wanted to make their own “kindness quilt” just like in the story!