Students get into the spirit of the Great Kindness Challenge

Colonial School District elementary schools celebrated the Great Kindness Challenge with school parades, assemblies, and activities that helped them understand the power of good deeds. 

This year's celebration was delayed a week due to the snow storm the last week of January. Colonial School District elementary schools traditionally participate in this national initiative, which started in 2006 and now involves thousands of schools across the country.

The initiative encourages students to think about ways in which they can spread good will to others and challenges them to check off 50 acts of kindness throughout the week. Students at Conshohocken Elementary School got started on their checklist by smiling at 25 people during a short assembly held on Feb. 2. The school also completed a project in which they wrote kind notes on coffee cup sleeves. The sleeves were then donated to a local coffee shop for distribution.

At Colonial Elementary School, students took part in a video challenge, where their videos were meant to demonstrate small acts of kindness, how kindness can change a bad day, or how they were personally affected by someone else's kindness. 

Plymouth Elementary School students marked the Great Kindness Challenge through a spirit week where they could wear different items each day. On Feb. 6, the Spirit Team greeted students coming into school with party horns, signs and music. Local police attended the morning festivities and added to the fun by showering students with bubbles and giving high fives to children as they walked into school.

At Whitemarsh Elementary, the week began with a cheerful lobby kick-off featuring decorations and music upon students' arrival. Students also took part in the school-wide "Color Our School with Kindness" project. Throughout the week, students “told on” others for being kind. They received a colored paper strip to record the kind action. All strips were linked together to create a giant WES Kindness Chain beginning in the lobby and growing toward each grade‑level hallway. Classrooms also explored the theme of kindness during morning meetings through read‑alouds, discussions, and daily challenges shared on the morning announcements. 

Ridge Park Elementary School held a winter clothing drive for TLC For the People, created kindness posters, and made items for each other, such as clothespins with kind messages that could be attached to someone's backpack and cards and notes.