“Kindness Counts” is the chosen title of a book published by Mrs. Fredrickson’s 4th grade class at Syre Elementary School in celebration of World Kindness Day.

These big-hearted students wrote, illustrated, and published "Kindness Counts" as a reminder that compassion is what binds us together.

Students carefully analyzed other published books to develop the criteria for every page, discussing and subsequently voting on what they liked about the samples.

Every student had their two-page own spread that included one full-page illustration and a full page of writing. Each piece of writing had four parts:

1. Kindness is_______

2. I can show kindness by

3. _______ was kind to me when_____

4. When someone is kind to me I feel_____

To celebrate being published authors, the class hosted an "Author Share" for families to watch each author read their work. It was an inspiring process!

Let’s give Julie Fredrickson and her 4th graders a big #ShorelineShoutOut for this inspiring story to wrap up 2023 and head into what we hope is a lovely Winter Break filled with kindness and compassion for all of us.