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Churchill administrators sent to the roof by students

This school year ended with three Churchill School administrators spending Monday, June 3, on the school roof playing catch with students.
 
The strange sight was the culmination of a kindness challenge during May. When the 675 students surpassed the 3,000-point kindness target, Principal Nikki Kerr and Assistant Principals Mary Kay Gardiner and Alison Lincoln came through and spent the day on the roof.

This school year ended with three Churchill School administrators spending Monday, June 3, on the school roof playing catch with students.
 
The strange sight was the culmination of a kindness challenge during May. When the 675 students surpassed the 3,000-point kindness target, Principal Nikki Kerr and Assistant Principals Mary Kay Gardiner and Alison Lincoln came through and spent the day on the roof.
 
  Churchill School administrators,
  from left Alison Lincoln, Nikki
  Kerr and Marykay Gardiner
  played catch from the roof
  with students during recess.
  During the month of May, the
  students worked to meet a
  3,000-point kindness challenge
  that sent the administrators
  to the roof.
(Marilyn Thomas/
  H-F Chronicle)
 

“No act is too small. We wanted it to be contagious,” Lincoln said. Students earned credit for picking up a scrap of paper, opening a door, completing a task for a teacher or simply remembering to say please and thank you. 

 
The program “encouraged them to think about their actions around the building and what they could do to positively impact this challenge,” she said.
 
This past school year, students in third, fourth and fifth grades have been working in teams. A classroom from each grade level was designated a team. The team got a fictitious house with a specific colors of yellow, green, pink, etc. and a character trait — courage, citizenship, optimism, respect, integrity, strength, friends, determination and kindness.
 
In addition, all staff members, from librarians to custodians, joined a team. 
 
The idea was for a house to earn the most points through acts of kindness in a six- to eight-week period.  At the end of that period, an all-school assembly was held and members of the house would wear T-shirts matching the color of their house so everyone knew what house they were in.  
 
The winning house for the period would be named at the assembly. The prize was playing fun games, such as riding tricycles.
 
“The whole vision for this was to create the climate for our school: teamwork, working together for a common goal,” said Lincoln. “We used themes that focused on things we want kids to work on, such as kindness and perseverance. “
 
Lincoln said administrators took it up a notch in May, so that all students could be winners by striving for the 3,000-point goal. Students got to choose whether the prize would be administrators in a dunk tank, getting a pie-in-the-face or a day on the roof. The overwhelming choice was the roof.
 
“We decided as a team that we wanted something like this school-wide to create positive energy and a positive culture as an entire staff,” Lincoln explained. 
 
Gardiner said the program will be back next year. It will be one part in the school’s ongoing social/emotional learning track that recognizes students succeed academically if they have a sound foundation of being friends and partners with fellow students and staff.

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