Students at Pacific Ridge Elementary School were challenged in a unique way. It didn’t involve reading, science or mathematics. Instead, they participated in The Great Kindness Challenge, a nationwide initiative from Kids for Peace that took place from Jan. 24 to 28.

“Throughout the week, their focus was to be completing the different kind acts,” said counselor Kaile Jones, who introduced the campaign at Gearhart Elementary School a couple of years ago. The goal is to boost morale and positive connections between students and their peers, teachers, family and community.

After not being able to host a Kindness Challenge during the 2020-21 school year, Jones was excited to bring it back this year, although she changed it from a monthlong event to a weeklong campaign.

This year, each grade level was presented with a different kindness goal, and then individual teachers and classrooms could determine what they wanted to do to focus on their particular goal.

Kindergarteners and first graders were tasked with demonstrating kindness to others, which they did by drawing pictures and writing kind notes for teachers, staff members and bus drivers. Pacific Ridge preschoolers also created cards.

Second graders were presented the goal of showing kindness to the environment and coming up with ideas to keep it healthy and clean. The goal for third graders was to demonstrate kindness to the school community. Together, they created a large poster, which is covered in hearts and a heartbeat line and reads “Health and Kindness: The Heartbeat of Pacific Ridge,” to hang outside the front of the school.

Lastly, fourth and fifth graders were encouraged to show kindness to self. They created positive affirmation bookmarks with sayings like, “I am smart,” “I am kind,” or “I am strong.” Jones also shared a character strength survey with teachers to do with their students if they wanted. The survey helps highlight a person’s top five strengths. Students who completed the survey were encouraged to put one of their strengths on a nametag sticker and wear it throughout the day.

“We thought that would be a positive activity for them,” she said, adding students often start to feel less confident and positive about themselves as they get older, which can affect how they treat others. “We’re really just trying to focus on their kindness and love to themselves.”

On a schoolwide level, teachers were encouraged to take note of students completing a kind act. The student was then given a paper link — with different colors of paper corresponding to different grade levels — to write down their act of kindness, and the link was added to a large chain in the cafeteria.

The idea, Jones said, was “to see how many kind acts, as a school, we can complete.”

Her goal was 500 links, and they had reached 501 by the end of the week, with students continuing to turn in links the following week.

The Kindness Challenge was accompanied by a Spirit Week, featuring simple clothing options centered on a daily theme. For example, last Monday’s theme was “Hats Off to Kindness,” and students were encouraged to wear their favorite hat. Last Thursday’s theme was “Kindness Wins,” accompanied by sports attire or team apparel.

“I tried to stick with things that weren’t too difficult,” Jones said.

Meanwhile, she also tasked herself with doing different acts of kindness to bring positivity and boost morale among staff members as well.

Although the Kindness Challenge lasted only a week, the school focused on spreading the message that this is more than just a temporary challenge.

“Kindness is something that needs to continue throughout their whole life,” Jones said.