Kindness is spreading throughout our schools from kindergarten through the high school. Acts of kindness always take place; however, students and staff at several schools recently actively promoted and encouraged Falcons to perform acts of kindness.
The high school’s new Acts of Kindness Club takes this very seriously and recently sponsored Kindness Week, in cooperation with the Gay Straight Alliance Club. Positive and uplifting sayings were posted on windows and walls throughout the schools, and even the staircases were decorated with encouraging words. The club members created an interactive visual of wings, where students could take photos. The Acts of Kindness Club also sponsored a “Student Shout Out,” offering everyone an opportunity to shout out a peer. Those compliments were displayed in the guidance suite. Club adviser and high school social worker Bidania Criscuolo said the students’ efforts to spread kindness enhance the school environment with positivity.
Elementary students participated in the Great Kindness Challenge, a worldwide program which is a proactive, weeklong project designed to improve school climate and increase student engagement by performing acts of kindness. From kindergarten through fifth grade, students focused on performing acts of kindness following a checklist that tasked them with activities such as complimenting five people, inviting a new friend to play and thanking the bus driver.
Bayville Elementary School counselor Jessica Colombini said the children naturally succeeded at this challenge. “They wanted to be kind and would often come to me with such pride to tell me of their acts of kindness or things they learned about the new friend they invited to sit with them at lunch,” she said.
Locust Valley Elementary School counselor Allison Warfield saw the same enthusiasm from her students. “I am so proud of the students for taking this challenge so seriously and proving that the lessons they learned will stick with them,” she said. Ms. Warfield said that students at Locust Valley Intermediate School were nominated as Kindness Ambassadors by their teachers for their extraordinary commitment to kindness. She worked in conjunction with school psychologists Alexis Provetto and Caryn Cantley to run the Great Kindness Challenge.
Remote students participated in a family version of the challenge and shared their acts of kindness during their remote classroom lessons.