Kindness never takes a day off at Hockinson Heights Elementary School, and HHES staff ensure this character trait is reinforced with students and amplified campus-wide each fall.
HHES is currently in the middle of its annual Kindness Campaign. Each week features a new kindness theme, and students and staff are encouraged to dress up each Friday for spirit day. Bright colors and sunglasses filled the halls last Friday in honor of last week’s “Eye” Shine Bright day. This Friday, expect to see a sea of hats as students and staff tip their favorite caps to one another for Tip of the Cap to You day. These six weeks of kindness culminate in a Unity Day celebration on Wednesday, October 21.
In the classroom, teachers are leading kindness-themed lessons that focus on the importance of being kind, cooperative, and inclusive. These lessons also illustrate ways students can show kindness to others. HHES Counselor Nicole Starkey developed slide decks for each grade level for teachers to use to facilitate lessons. Students are given opportunities to reflect on the impact kindness has on others and are challenged to make kindness goals for themselves or their classroom:
Pictured is one of HHES Kindness Goal-setting prompts for 3rd Graders
Last week’s theme, Be Kind to Yourself, invited students to recognize their own strengths. In one activity, students shared something they are proud of in an online Padlet. Responses included “I am smart,” “I am artistic,” “I am brave,” and “I am a good friend.”
Staff members make it a point to personally recognize acts of kindness regularly through words of encouragement, high fives, and explicitly calling out the kind words and actions they spot across campus. “We believe that consistently doing that is the most important way we can create a culture of kindness on our campus that will outlive our six week kindness campaign,” said HHES Assistant Principal Michael Olson.
Staff have also found a creative way to celebrating kindness through the Giving Market, a fundraiser currently being run by Parents Working Together (PWT). Students can earn small rubber ducks by selling items through the market, and the school have been using a limited number of coveted golden ducks to celebrate students who are going above and beyond to show kindness. Teachers submitted student names and stories from their classrooms, and Principal Meredith Gannon and Olson visited several classrooms last Friday to present a Golden Duck of Kindness to select students. Each recipient’s received a personal email recognizing their kind actions, along with a photo.
Golden Duck Recipients
Stay tuned to the HHES Facebook page each week to see kindness in action at HHES leading up to Unity Day.