Kindness is king at Stanley Knowles

​The Winnipeg Police Association's annual Cool 2Be Kind campaign is underway at schools across the city, including École Stanley Knowles School.

Cool 2Be Kind is a positive behavior/anti-bullying program that promotes the value of kindness and making positive life choices amongst Kindergarten to Grade 8 students.

Schools are encouraged to create their own kindness projects and submit their ideas to www.cool2bekind.ca for the opportunity to receive $500 in funding to bring their visions to life.

At Stanley Knowles, teacher Irene Cadotte's Grade 3 class created the book Cool 2Be Kind A to Z to promote positive behavior, respect and inclusion. The pages are currently showcased on a bulletin board next to Ms. Cadotte's Room 203.

"We also made bookmarks and emoji pins, so people can take them after they've read the book," said student Claire Karpiak.

Student Cole Laforte wrote the section of the book devoted to the letter C.

"I wrote that C is for Caring. Caring means helping someone in need. Comforting someone means putting someone's needs in front of yours," he said.

Claire did the entry for the letter B.

"B stands for Belonging," she said. "Belonging means that everybody has a place. If you see someone that is lonely, say 'do you want to play with me?'"

The students presented their project to their entire school community at a recent assembly. As well, students also made classroom visits to promote their project.

"I wanted my students to be able to explain what respect is and what bullying is," Ms. Cadotte said.

"We already do a Fill Your Buckets program in our classroom and this project is just an added bonus. The students have already reached both my goals and their own goals. I let the students be the voice of this project and make their own choices…and they chose this book."

Students said they hoped the project would make Stanley Knowles an even greater school.

"I hope this project makes everyone a little more kinder," Cole said.

"We also hope that it brings everyone together," Claire said.

The class will ultimately bind the pages together to create a keepsake copy of the book for the Stanley Knowles library.