Licking ice cream on a stick Thursday afternoon, the Lava Ridge Elementary students sat in a circle with their principal. Though they would normally be with their class this time of day, these students weren’t in trouble.

Just the opposite, in fact.

Having been spotted by a staff member doing something particularly kind, caring or responsible, the students were being rewarded with dessert. When students are ”caught” in the act at Lava Ridge, they get a ticket. The tickets go in a jar from which five students’ names are typically chosen each week to have ice cream with the principal.

”If we recognize them, then it encourages others to act that way,” said Jan Silberman, assistant principal and counselor at Lava Ridge. ”We want to make sure kids are recognized for the good things they do.”

The ”caught ya” tickets are part of the school’s character-education program centered on character principles such as caring, respect and trustworthiness. Character education is a districtwide effort to teach students about integrity and citizenship.

The program at Lava Ridge isn’t in response to any particular need, Silberman said, just an effort to have a schoolwide reinforcement system. The idea, in a sense, is to reward random acts of kindness from the heart.

As the students sat eating ice cream Thursday, they talked about their good deeds.

”I picked up pencils,” said Abby Andresen, 8, a second-grader.

Someone had forgotten them. Did she know she had done something nice? No, Abby said, she had not at the time.

Briar Hollipeter, a fourth-grader, said he had complimented a boy in math.

”I was surprised” to be recognized, the 11-year-old said. But, in his case, he knew what he was doing was a good thing.

Some of the youngest students weren’t quite sure what they had done that was commendable. They just couldn’t remember. All they knew was that they were helping people.

The program shows kids that everyone is working together toward specific character traits, said Donna Lindsay, a second-grade teacher. They’re part of a bigger community.

”I think it builds unity,” she said.

The teacher has handed out a ticket when a student has done something without being asked. She remembers seeing a little boy drop his lunch in the hall and stop to clean it up, and a little girl put her lunch down to help him. The teacher gave both students a ticket.

She hopes the program shows students the way everyone can make a difference in each other’s lives.

Just after school, Tianna Howard, 10, a fourth-grader, told her ticket story. After a boy got hit in the face with a tetherball, she took him to the office to see if he was OK.

”His nose was all puffy,” Tianna remembered.

But there was a bigger value to doing something nice, the girl said.

”If you help someone, they might help you when you get hurt,” Tianna said.