Kentucky School’s Kindness Crew Creates Rock Garden

Stefany Bibb, a teacher at John F. Kennedy Montessori Elementary School in Louisville started the “Kindness Crew” to combat the Monday morning blues. The group lines the entrance of the school every Monday to help cheer up students. With something as simple as a morning greeting and kind words, they hope to change the direction of someone’s day.

Students in the Kindness Crew often hold the door for others, greet students and teachers each morning with posters that have positive messages, focus on being helpful and respectful, and help others to remember to be kind. Every month, the ‘Kindness Crew’ also chooses an act of kindness to perform somewhere in the community. Bibb hopes these students take the foundation of kindness they’ve started at Kennedy Montessori and continue to build upon it in the future.

During spring break, Bibb and several students in the Kindness Crew created a rock garden outside of the school’s building of painted rocks with messages of kindness or happy designs.
Students can keep the rocks for up to one week before returning them to the garden. If students choose to keep the rock longer, they can paint another one and replace the one they took.

Bibb said kids genuinely have a kind heart and she just wants them to keep it. “Nothing you’ve heard from any of the students, nothing they do, is because of me. I just gave them the outlet to do what they naturally do. They’re naturally kind. There’s nothing I can take credit for, for how amazing they are and the kindness they spread. I’m just like, ‘Here, do what you do’” Bibb said.

John F. Kennedy Montessori Elementary was one of seven schools recognized for best practices during the 2021 Continuous Improvement Summit for the Kindness Crew. Each winner was presented with a $500 check that can be used toward school improvement.