BURLINGTON, NC (WGHP) — In Wendy Ely’s first-grade classroom at Marvin B Smith Elementary School in Burlington, kindness can be seen everywhere.

There are posters on the walls and books about kindness. But you can also see it in the students and the way they treat each other.

According to their teacher, Wendy Ely, all of it is intentional. It’s a lesson she says they learned well.

“Our focus word for the month of February was kindness,” says Ely. “So with that, each morning we do a social-emotional lesson surrounding that word. And I just thought that one of the best things for us would be to write about our acts of kindness.”

And so, they did! They not only wrote about their acts of kindness toward others, but they also illustrated those acts themselves.

“Kindness is giving compliments. I felt very happy when someone said, I look pretty. I then gave other people compliments. I told somebody I like their dress and he said, thank you,” Kamryn Brown wrote.

“Kindness is caring for people. I helped my mom when she hurt her foot and I gave her some ice cream and some lovies,” Preston Moyers wrote.

“Kindness is writing a note to someone to make their day. I wrote a note to Ms. Tracy who works in the office and this made her smile,” classmate Kaylie said.

Their works were so good, Ely decided to put them together in a book. She’s done it before and says the books have been great confidence boosters for the students.

“I don’t think I was a published author at six or seven. So, this is something that they can have, and they can show off. And hopefully, this won’t be the only book that they write. And they can go on to be real authors.”

She says no matter what they choose to do in life, they can always have the book as a reminder of one of the greatest lessons of all, that kindness matters.

“It makes you feel like you are loved,” Preston Moyers says.

And according to this class, everyone needs to feel that!