Jackie Chan once said, “Sometimes it takes only one act of kindness and caring to change a person’s life.”
North Elementary staff and teachers are hoping to change a whole lot of lives this week and for many weeks, months and years ahead as they host Kindness Week Feb. 11-17.
Students at North Elementary — located within Bryson — will be encouraged to “spread kindness like confetti” all week long. Every day will have a color theme to go along with the message of the day:
- - Yellow Monday: Be the sunshine in someone’s day.
- - Red Tuesday: Lead with your heart.
- - Orange Wednesday: “Orange” you glad you’re a North Navigator.
- - Neon Thursday: Brighten someone’s day.
- - Blue Friday: No need to feel blue — we’ll always be a friend to you.
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Certainly a top lesson children will learn at North Elementary, being kind has a number of positive benefits such as better concentration, less bullying, improved health, greater sense of belonging and less depression.
If you’d like to follow the example set by North Elementary and encourage your own children to be kind, we have some fun ways to do so:
- - Paint kindness rocks with positive affirmations and leave them around the neighborhood for others to find.
- - Create a family appreciation box where family members write down words of appreciation for acts of kindness.
- - Donate books, clothes and food and make sure you actively involve your children in deciding what to donate and explain why you are making the donation.
- - Play the compliment game, tossing a small ball to each family member and whoever catches it has to say a compliment about the person who threw the ball.
- - Plan a random act of kindness next time you go out — the person you just bought the coffee for doesn’t need to know it was planned.
- - Read books about kindness with your young child and talk about how the book’s character was kind and how they felt.
- - Play a smiling game with your child to see if a smile really is contagious. Play the game in public to see if you can get more people to smile back at you.
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We can’t wait to see how our North Navigators will be spreading kindness beyond Kindness Week and making a difference now and in the future.