Dear Parents, In an effort to create a culture of kindness, our school will be participating in a Kindness Challenge during the week of March 18th-22nd. This year’s theme is “Reaching Out With a Kind-Hearted Hand”. The week is devoted to doing as many acts of kindness as possible in and out of school. The purpose of this week long event is to foster an environment that values the importance of being kind all year round. Studies have shown that promoting kindness among youth promotes self-confidence, positivity, and increased happiness. The week’s activities will include daily kindness morning announcements, daily kindness classroom activities, kindness videos, Kindness Rocks project, a school-wide community service project (collecting cans and cups of fruit, fruit cocktail and applesauce for our local food pantry) and spirit wear days promoting kindness: Monday – Kindness Predicts Your Future (Career Day); Tuesday – Think Twice Be Kind (Twin Day); Wednesday - Let Kindness Shine/Sparkly attire, sunglasses, etc.; Thursday – color day: (Pre-K & K – wear yellow - “Be the Sunshine on Someone’s Cloudy Day” ; 1st Grade – wear red or orange - “We’re REaDy for Kindness Week”, “Orange You Glad for Kindness”; 2nd Grade – wear blue - “Don’t Make Others Feel Blue” ; 3rd Grade – wear black - BLACK Out Meanness ; 4th Grade – wear green - “Go GREEN – Conserve the Feelings of Others); Friday – Team Up for Kindness (Sports Day). Students will also receive a checklist with 40 acts of kindness to complete during the week. While we would love for your child to complete all 40 acts, the goal is for your child to complete as many acts as possible. Checklists will need to be turned in by March 26th. We will end the week with a school wide walk for the Mendon Food Pantry. We look forward to an exciting week and most importantly your child’s participation in The Kindness Challenge. Kindly, Mrs. Gallagher