Pink Shirt Day - Sprinkle Kindness

Wednesday, February 25 is Pink Shirt Day.  This day started in 2007 when two students in Nova Scotia helped to support a fellow student who was being targeted.  The result has turned into a global campaign to stand up against bullying.  Pink shirt day is now recognized in over 180 countries. 

At school we also use this day to focus on the importance of choosing kindness.  This has been our focus all year.  

Conflicts happen at school and in life.  We have been learning about using different tools to handle conflict situations.  At our last assembly we talked about four tools, with the acronym WITS; Walk away, Ignore, Talk it Out and Seek Help.  

On Tuesday we are having our regular monthly assembly.  We will share the story of Pink Shirt Day (Click here for the video) and also learn about "Having Tough Talks".  This is a 3 step process for talking to someone who is repeatedly being bothersome.  The three steps are easy to remember using visuals of a heart - bug - genie lantern. 

• Step One (heart):  Identify a positive  (*What is something they do well *)
• Step Two (bug):  Identify what is bothering you  (*But it really bugs me when you tap your pencil on my desk when you walk by *)
• Step Three (genie lantern):  Share a wish to help with solving the problem  (*I wish you could stop tapping your pencil on my desk*)

Tough talks do not always solve the problem, but often a person is not aware of the affect their behaviors are having on someone else.  Tough Talks is a skill to help mitigate problems when they are still small. 

On Wednesday students are invited to wear something pink in support of Pink Shirt Day.  It could be a scarf, socks, ribbon, shirt, or even just a little paper heart.  This is not mandatory, but we hope to capture a photo of our sea of pink!

Thanks everyone!