The 60 K/1 children from Mrs. Rose's, Mrs. Ginet's and Mrs. Vargas Cruz's classes at James Thompson Elementary School hosted a Care Project in 2017/18. The vision of this project included reaching out to local neighbours with hand-made cookies and post-cards with messages of care and kindness. The hope was to build connections between our school community and neighbours. We also hoped to encourage more face-to-face interactions with one another, remembering the importance of the human connection. The impact was immediate. Our school received thank you cards from neighbours and kind notes in return. 

The Richmond News captured the essence of this Kindness Project in an article 

https://www.richmond-news.com/community/richmond-students-seek-connections-with-neighbours-1.23336303

What did we do?

As a year-end tie up to our "Building Community" inquiry and having a Growth Mindset and "Gratitude Attitude", the K/1 students were tasked with engaging in a Community Care project, cleaning up litter in our local community.  The students were asked to notice, name and nurture all of the things that they discovered. The students were also asked to reflect upon their experience and were questioned on how they helped their community, how helping our community is important and how else, perhaps, they can take steps to care for our local community. 

Our Hope and Vision:

For the students to become more metacognitive and to ultimately internalize how they can work towards a common goal and be better connected to their very own community.

Did it make a Difference?

What we noticed:

All students could explain in an interview, in some detail, how they helped their community 

Most students could identify why this Care Project was important

Next Steps:

The students were challenged to generate original ways that they could care for their local community.