World Kindness day is on Nov. 13., and Ms. Caryn Wiley’s, a Special Education teacher, students are celebrating the day by making a Giving Tree. The Giving Tree her students made is displayed in the history hallway. 

“We wanted to come up with a way to spread kindness and we had some other ideas that we thought would be a little too time consuming,” said Ms. Wiley. “We felt this was a powerful way to spread kindness.”

The Giving Tree is a paper tree hung up in the history hallway and students can pull off a paper leaf which has kind words or motivational quotes written onto them. Students are encouraged to take a leaf based on what they need, whether it is a compliment or a motivational boost. 

Wiley and her students had this idea after reading the book The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. 

“The Giving Tree talks about a tree who gives all of herself for the love of a boy and we wanted to give some of ourselves to spread love and kindness to our school,” said Wiley. 

The students discussed what they learned from making the tree together.

“All the nice words that we wrote on the tree reminds us to be kind,” said senior Abigail Rogers.

The Giving Tree has only been up in the hallway for a couple of days and it is already noticeable that students and teachers have taken off some leaves. It is safe to say that Ms. Wiley and her students have succeeded in their goal of spreading kindness to everyone who walks past the tree.