Teaching Flower Hill Primary School students about the concept of kindness and how it can be displayed in a variety of everyday life situations is important to faculty and staff members. The school has been participating in a kindness initiative along with its counterparts across Huntington UFSD.
This is marks the third year that Flower Hill participated in the Great Kindness Challenge. “Although this year may be different, we always still ‘choose kind’ at Flower Hill,” Principal Lucia Laguarda said.
The Great Kindness Challenge was observed worldwide last week. Last year, over 15 million students attending more than 28,000 schools in 115 countries performed over 750 million acts of kindness according to organizers of the initiative.
“The Great Kindness Challenge is a proactive and positive bullying prevention initiative that improves school climate and increases student engagement,” states the organization’s website. “The Great Kindness Challenge is one week devoted to performing as many acts of kindness as possible on campus.”
Every day last week, Flower Hill faculty, staff and students were given a special kindness challenge. “On Monday, we were kind to ourselves,” Ms. Laguarda said. “We want our children to know that they have to love themselves and be kind to themselves in order to be kind to others. Students and staff were encouraged to right a wrong or congratulate themselves for an achievement or meeting a goal.”
Tuesday was Be Kind to Parents Day. “We told our parents that we love them and offered to help with being asked to do so,” Ms. Laguarda said.
Wednesday was Be Kind to Teachers Day, which saw students writing notes to faculty members and thanking them for all they do as well as demonstrating especially respectful behavior through the day.
Thursday was Be Kind to Friends Day. “This was a time to reach out to a friend and let them know you care about them and maybe include a new friend as well,” Ms. Laguarda said.
The week wrapped up on Friday with Be Kind to Classmates Day as students gave each other a thumbs up to let them know that they have been doing a great job.
“There are many ways to ‘choose kind’ and at Flower Hill, the Foxes love to show off their kindness,” Ms. Laguarda said.