Several years ago in a young boy was bullied by other students in Eastern Canada because he wore a pink shirt to school. When his friends found out about how he was treated, they began wearing pink shirts in support of their friend. Slowly the conversation about bullying and its unhealthy affects on people and communities began to grow, and now Pink Shirt Day is commemorated across Canada as a day to come together as communities who support kindness and acceptance, rather than exclusion and bullying. This year Pink Shirt Day will focus on "encouraging everyone to openly express, "Kindness is one size fits all”. We all have the capacity to spread kindness and that is the underlying philosophy behind our anti-bullying movement: a movement we hope lives year round beyond Pink Shirt Day. After all, kindness never goes out of style." Leading up to Pink Shirt Day, we will build upon our friendship skills, identify what bullying does and doesn't look like and discuss ways to handle situations that may involve bullying. Also, if students would like to, they will have the opportunity to exchange Valentine Cards on February 9th. To reinforce the idea that "kindness is one size that fits all" I am encouraging students to personalize their Valentine Cards with kind and caring words for their classmates. An example might be: Dear Mrs. Kim I like you becasue you are always smiling and seeing you smile makes me smile! Happy Valentine's Day! Your Friend Ms. Bates Students will bring home a list of their classmates so that every child can receive kind words from each other to celebrate inclusivity and kindness. All students and staff will be encouraged to wear pink clothes on February 24th to school in order to continue the conversation about inclusivity, kindness, and anti-bullying. Pink Shirt anti-bullying day was exciting and a great success. We discussed what bullying looks and feels like, we talk about giving people PUT UP (compliments) rather than PUT DOWNS (negative words) and talked about how to create an even better classroom community.
Let's keep the conversation about kindness going! Comments are closed.
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June 2017
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