“It’s as simple as calling your grandmother to say hello, playing with the family dog who is often ignored, letting someone know you care about them, or helping someone who has less than you do.”

This was the advice from South Whidbey singer Beverly Graham to students at the South Whidbey Primary School during an assembly Friday to kick off Random Acts of Kindness Week.

Since the week doesn’t start until Feb. 11, teachers and administrators at the school clearly wanted the students to get a head start on planning their little kindnesses. Graham, who is the founder of Operation: Sack Lunch in addition to her singing career, was at the school as an example to the kids. She described the people she serves as homeless families “with children like you that don’t have homes to live in with their own refrigerators and beds.”

She asked the children to collect boxes of juice to put in sack lunches for the homeless. Students at South Whidbey Intermediate School will be collecting packages of cheese and crackers for the lunches over the next few weeks.

Operation: Sack Lunch is nonprofit organization that provides meals and sleeping bags for the homeless in Seattle. Graham said she hoped the children would practice other acts of kindness for the next three weeks.

The primary and intermediate school Competent Kids are sponsoring Random Acts of Kindness Week, which runs through Feb. 17.

“We teach the children that a random act of kindness is a simple act, planned or unplanned, sometimes anonymous act, which helps to brighten someone’s day,” said Marla Shelton, coordinator of Random Acts of Kindness at the primary school. “And we teach them the act is done not for a reward, but simply to be nice.”

The week features specific themes for acts of kindness each day of the week beginning with Feb. 11.