What does innovation look like in a fifth-grade classroom? At St. Michael’s, it looks like students leading with empathy, collaborating across age groups, and turning values into action through the Kind Kids initiative.
Launched in October during students’ elective period, Kind Kids is a student-driven program designed to strengthen relationships and cultivate kindness across campus and beyond. Guided by fifth-grade teachers Ms. Caroline Zlaket and Dr. Matt Teller, with support from school counselor Ms. Courtney Croswell, students thoughtfully design and implement projects that make kindness visible and meaningful. As Dr. Teller notes, “We have been delighted with how well the 5th Grade Kind Kids Initiative has fit within the larger context of social and emotional learning here at St. Michael’s.”
The program’s goal, as Ms. Zlaket explains, is to help students “build everyday habits of kindness.” Rather than treating kindness as a one-time lesson, Kind Kids empowers students to practice it consistently through leadership, creativity, and service.
So far, students have completed three impactful projects. The Post-It Notes Campus Campaign filled hallways and shared spaces with encouraging messages, reminding the community that small acts of kindness matter. The Pre-K Kindness Project paired fifth graders with St. Michael’s youngest learners to create acrostic crowns celebrating each child’s identity, strengthening cross-grade relationships and fostering belonging. The Kickball Covenant addressed recess conflict by empowering students to collaborate on shared rules that emphasized fairness, respect, and sportsmanship.
Reflection has been central to the program’s impact. Ms. Croswell shares, “The most meaningful growth happened when students realized the impact of their work not just through planning kindness, but by hearing how their actions helped others feel special, included, and valued. Those moments of connection are where real learning lives.”
Students are currently preparing a fourth kindness project to be unveiled during Love of Reading Week in March. Beyond campus, the fifth grade extends its commitment to service through a partnership with Ben’s Bells. After learning about the organization and creating ceramic bell pieces on the Upper School Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, students are planning a “belling” ceremony to honor St. Michael’s school safety partners – St. Joseph Hospital and the Murphy-Wilmot Library.
What makes Kind Kids truly innovative is not just what students do, but how they do it. In a K–8 Episcopal school rooted in faith, service, and community, the program reflects a student-led, project-based approach to character education. By owning the process from idea to implementation, students transform kindness into a practiced skill – preparing them to lead with empathy and purpose.
At St. Michael’s, innovation doesn’t always arrive through new technology. Sometimes, it appears as a Post-it note on a locker, a crown on a Pre-K student’s head, or a covenant written by children who believe kindness matters—and that they can make a difference.