One hundred days of school marked by 300 acts of kindness at Leslie Frost

Teacher Sylvie Dugas couldn’t have known that trying out something new this year to celebrate the recent 100th day of school could yield such a cascade of positive energy.

And yet when she asked her 20 students to do five random acts of kindness in celebration of the 100th day of learning this year, two co-workers heard about the plan and ran with it, too.

Dugas’ 20 students are a split Grade 1-2 class at Leslie Frost Public School, in the French Immersion program. She figured her 20 students, multiplied by five acts of kindness, would create 100 things “that would spread goodness.”

Once her colleagues ran with it in their classrooms, though, those numbers mushroomed to 300 random acts of kindness.

Dugas, in her 11th year teaching at Leslie Frost, had sent a letter home to parents a week in advance so they would be able to help provide some guidance to celebrate the day appropriately.

“The parents were amazing — so supportive and on board,” says Dugas.

Often the 100th day of school involves students bringing in collections of things, which can get a bit unwieldy. Dugas avoided all that with her idea.

In the end, grandparents’ driveways were shovelled, money was donated to the local Humane Society and food bank, bedrooms and other house chores were done, and much more.

One student brought “a beautiful card she had made” to Dugas, to let her know how much she meant to her as a teacher.

In the end, each student had to give an oral presentation, in French, at the front of the class on what they did for their five acts – a good challenge for their second language.

“The students felt so good about it, too,” the teacher says, “and I really just wanted to spread goodness all around.”