With the work we have done in bringing in Wowk Cares to our school community, our school's social responsibility committee felt that it would be a good time to have our students learn about the connection between our common language and Pink Shirt Day.

When we honour Pink Shirt Day, we are recognizing the importance of being inclusive of everyone in our school and creating an environment where nobody is bullied and everyone feels safe. We as a staff feel this aligns strongly with our Wowk Cares language of Caring for Others.

For our school wide activity for Pink Shirt Day, we officially introduced our Wowk Cares language to our students during an assembly. Students also spent some time during the day reading a story in our classrooms that was tied to themes of kindness, inclusion, and caring and they were asked to reflect upon the different ways we can Care for Others in our school. Our learners were informed that they were to share their ideas on on art template of a hand that will be part of a school display in our hallways.

We as a staff were curious what our students already knew about what it means to Care for Others based on some of the early work our staff have already done in their classrooms. In this activity we were able to have a glimpse into their understandings through what they shared in their class discussions as well as their ideas included on their art piece.

The PDF below includes examples of the student's reflections. Students mentioned that they can care for others by:

• cheering up people when they are sad
• treating others with respect
• never being a bystander. Always help even in they are not your peer, and
• encouraging someone
• playing with others

We found some of the responses by our students quite encouraging and very reflective. We also found that there were a high number of responses that included more simple reflections where students mentioned they can care for others by being nice, kind, or helpful. While this is a great place to start and by all means appropriate responses especially for early primary learners, we're hoping that over time our learners can tell us more and give even more specific and personal responses regarding the many ways that we can Care for Others in our school. Some of the whole school activities that are in the planning phase for next year will give our students more opportunities to dive deeper into this important learning.