BES Embarks on The Great Kindness Challenge

Students at Babylon Elementary School spent the last week of January celebrating The Great Kindness Challenge. The Great Kindness Challenge is a worldwide initiative that empowers students to create a culture of kindness around them, and this year, the school joined with 33,000 others across the globe in demonstrating kindness to each other.

The centerpiece the challenge was the Kindness Snowman, which was displayed in the school lobby. Each time a student was “caught” being kind, they were given a snowball sticker to add to the snowman, and their name was spoken over the morning announcements. Throughout the week, the snowman grew to show that even small acts of kindness can grow into a whole snowman.

In addition to the Kindness Snowman, the students took part in daily winter- and- kindness- themed special activities. On Monday, the students wore warm hats and discussed different ways to demonstrate kindness, including The Great Kindness Challenge Checklist, which outlined a handful of small ways the students could show kindness to one another. On Tuesday, the students wore fuzzy socks and donated to the district Animal Club’s animal shelter drive to benefit local rescue nonprofit, Ollie’s Angels. The students were also treated to a visit by puppies from the rescue. On Wednesday, the students wore white and created kindness-themed bookmarks to share with each other. On Thursday, students wore the Babylon colors of black and orange to demonstrate school spirit and wrote kindness notes to share with teachers and staff across the district. These notes also helped the students practice their vocabulary and spelling. Finally, on Friday the students wore pajamas to school and stood in the “Be the I in Kind” photobooth.

For more information about the Babylon Union Free School District, please visit the District’s website at www.babylon.k12.ny.us. Exciting activities happening throughout the District and programs celebrating student achievement can also be found on the District’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/babylonschooldistrict/.