Bournedale Students Complete Kindness Week
Bournedale Elementary School students participated in Kindness Week last month as an initiative to share positivity throughout both the school and community.
School adjustment counselors Bethany Magnatta and Abby Downing coordinated the Kindness Week Challenge, which ran from January 23 to 27. Students filled out “Kindness Acts” worksheets to document how they spread kindness at home and in school. Students who completed their worksheet had their names displayed on the school’s Kindness Board.
Students and faculty were able to wear fun outfits based on each day’s theme, which included a tie-dye “Peace, Love & Kindness” concept and “BEE Kind,” which encouraged the school community to don yellow and black and riff on the theme of Bournedale this year, “Bee Amazing, Bee You.”
Faculty read books with a kindness theme to students and decorated classroom doors around school with positive messaging. At the end of the week, participating students attended a dance party and received popsicles for their tremendous efforts.
“Our students went out of their way to make sure their peers feel recognized, and I am so proud of them,” Superintendent Kerri Anne Quinlan-Zhou said in a news release. “They learned that even the smallest act can have a profound impact on those around them, a lesson they will carry forever.”
Bournedale Elementary School collaborated with the Great Kindness Challenge Team this year to collect “Kind Coins” to help fund ocean cleanups, and raised almost $500.
The Great Kindness Challenge is a worldwide initiative that promotes kindness and anti-bullying campaigns in schools. In Bournedale, the initiative helped give students a sense of empowerment and highlighted how they can make a difference globally.
“Our students exhibit kindness and compassion every day,” Ms. Downing said. “I am continuously in awe of their kindness toward others, and this week highlighted how wonderful they are to those in their community and within our schools.”