Fifth Grade Issues 'Great Kindness Challenge'
The fifth grade Junior Senate called on all Shore students to join in the Great Kindness Challenge, one week devoted to performing as many acts of kindness as possible on campus and in the community. Using a checklist of 50 kind acts, students accepted the challenge and proved that kindness is strength.
Created by the organization Kids for Peace, the Challenge ran January 25 - 29. Well over 4,000,000 students in close to 7,000 schools all over the world participated in this event. While Shore is already an overwhelmingly kind and supportive community, participating in the challenge made kindness a true focus in and around campus for the week.
Explains Lower School Dean of Students and fourth grade teacher Sean Melia, "Shore is a place that is oozing with kind acts. Slowing down to recognize them, or even notice them at all, can be hard. The Great Kindness Challenge was a great opportunity to do that." Melia helped create the "Caught in the Act" program earlier this year to further underscore the importance of acts of kindness at Shore.
Kindness - the first pledge of Shore's Community Code - is more than a behavioral aspiration. Studies show that the experience of kindness actually changes the brain. "The good feelings that we experience when being kind are produced by endorphins," writes school psychology expert Lisa Currie. "They activate areas of the brain that are associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust. These feelings of joyfulness are proven to be contagious, encouraging more kind behavior (also known as altruism) by the giver and recipient. Acts of kindness help us form connections with others which are reported to be a strong factor in increasing happiness."
Kindness is critical in creating a sense of personal connectedness, ecouraging gratitude, and reducing stress - all important goals in building the kind of caring community that's so characteristic of Shore's culture.
According to Shore's Lower School Head, Sara Knox, "In addition to completing acts of kindness from the checklist, all homeroom classes will participated in a Door Decorating Challenge." Junior Senate provided the parameters for this challenge, which asked each class to work together to come up with an idea for decorating their door with a kindness theme in mind.
Knox also created a "Wall of Kindness" in Shore's Dining Hall, where students of all ages recorded their reflections on what it means to be kind.
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Created by the organization Kids for Peace, the Challenge ran January 25 - 29. Well over 4,000,000 students in close to 7,000 schools all over the world participated in this event. While Shore is already an overwhelmingly kind and supportive community, participating in the challenge made kindness a true focus in and around campus for the week.
Explains Lower School Dean of Students and fourth grade teacher Sean Melia, "Shore is a place that is oozing with kind acts. Slowing down to recognize them, or even notice them at all, can be hard. The Great Kindness Challenge was a great opportunity to do that." Melia helped create the "Caught in the Act" program earlier this year to further underscore the importance of acts of kindness at Shore.
Kindness - the first pledge of Shore's Community Code - is more than a behavioral aspiration. Studies show that the experience of kindness actually changes the brain. "The good feelings that we experience when being kind are produced by endorphins," writes school psychology expert Lisa Currie. "They activate areas of the brain that are associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust. These feelings of joyfulness are proven to be contagious, encouraging more kind behavior (also known as altruism) by the giver and recipient. Acts of kindness help us form connections with others which are reported to be a strong factor in increasing happiness."
Kindness is critical in creating a sense of personal connectedness, ecouraging gratitude, and reducing stress - all important goals in building the kind of caring community that's so characteristic of Shore's culture.
According to Shore's Lower School Head, Sara Knox, "In addition to completing acts of kindness from the checklist, all homeroom classes will participated in a Door Decorating Challenge." Junior Senate provided the parameters for this challenge, which asked each class to work together to come up with an idea for decorating their door with a kindness theme in mind.
Knox also created a "Wall of Kindness" in Shore's Dining Hall, where students of all ages recorded their reflections on what it means to be kind.
Shore Country Day School’s mission is to provide an education that inspires a love of learning and encourages children to embrace academic challenge. We seek to build character, cultivate creativity, and value diversity as we help our children become healthy, compassionate citizens of the world.
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