Colonial Elementary celebrated No Name-Calling Week with kindness activities

Colonial Elementary fifth graders holding pages of compliments after the Kindness Scoot activity.

The fourth and fifth graders at Colonial Elementary School (CES) celebrated “No Name-Calling Week” with special dress up days and Morning Meeting projects that focused on kindness.

“I think it’s important for people to be kind so that everyone’s included and no one feels left out,” said Emma Vancoillie, a fifth grader at CES.

Events during No Name-Calling Week included writing random notes of kindness, wearing and designing their own t-shirts with positive messages, “running interference on name-calling” by dressing in sports team gear and learning the six pillars of character — trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.

On Friday, every class participated in a “Kindness Scoot,” where each student put their name in the middle of a piece of paper and all of their classmates wrote a compliment to the person.

“It made other people feel good about themselves,” said Holly Boegner, CES fifth grader. “It made other people feel like they were accepted with all the unique qualities that they had.”

The activities are designed to help the students learn to respect their peers and appreciate differences.

“I think it’s working,” said Fadl Greene, a fifth grader at CES. “Everybody’s nice to each other and helpful. They’re good classmates.”

“I think that people would be surprised to know that it actually works,” agreed Emma. “Everybody’s kind to each other after this.”

No Name-Calling Week reinforces the kindness message of the district-wide Rachel’s Challenge school climate initiative and is one of the activities that CES will use toward the school’s certification as a No Place for Hate school. Rachel’s Challenge in Colonial was funded by a grant from the Colonial School District Education Foundation.