Pay it Forward

Over the last month or so, my class has had to opportunity to be involved in a really neat project. The 2nd grade teacher at my school told me about this “Pay it Forward” project that her teacher friend in the states was heading up and asked if I wanted to be involved. They got a $500 grant to send Pay It Forward boxes to other third grade classes and asked if we wanted to be involved. I told them absolutely!

A few weeks ago my class received the Pay it Forward box in the mail from the 3rd grade class in New York. Inside the box was:
-A letter explaining everything
-Copy of the book, Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed
-Envelope with $20 (to help with our class pay it forward project)
-Snack for our class (there was not room in the box to send 20 blueberry muffins, so they sent a little cash and I bought Krispy Kreme donuts for the kids!)
-Pay it Forward cards

I had never heard of the book before, but it was so cute and did a wonderful job of explaining the idea of pay it forward. It is about a little girl named Mary who picks some blueberries and randomly gives them to 5 people. One of those 5 people is a nice lady who uses them to bake some blueberry muffins and gives them to 5 different people. One of those five people is a paper boy who says “Good Morning” to each of his customers on his paper route. And the cycle just keeps going.

Most of my kids had never heard of the concept of Pay it Forward. So it was really cool to discuss the idea with them of paying a kindness forward to people and encouraging them to do the same. As a class we brainstormed ways that we could Pay it Forward individually, as well as Pay it Forward as a class. We decided we would use our $20 to buy flowers for our school secretary and treat her to lunch one day off of campus. It was so fun to watch my kids get excited about doing something kind for someone else. We talked a lot about how we are called to spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Last week, at assembly we took the opportunity to share with the elementary school about Pay it Forward. We sang some fun songs about love, I read the book, and each of the kids shared about their individual Pay it Forwards. Then they performed a song I had taught them by Amy Grant. On one of her hymns CDs, she does a Medley of Jesus Loves Me/They’ll Know We Are Christians/Helping Hand. All 3 are great songs that beautifully present the joy of Christ’s love and importance of sharing that love with others.