Friendship moves to the front of the class this year

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — A lot of friendship building and comradery went on in Bloomfield schools last week as students engage in planned activities to highlight “Start With Hello Week,” an initiative focusing on removing the barriers of social isolation among students.

The five-day event, which began Monday and ends Friday, is the creation of Sandy Hook Promise, a national organization founded by four residents of Newtown, Conn., the site of the 2012 mass killings at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The founders include parents who lost children in the shooting.

The Bloomfield School District was recognized last year by Sandy Hook Promise with a national award for the activities that were implemented. Bloomfield Assistant Superintendent of Schools Joe Fleres said that while he does not know the chances for winning the award two years in a row, there will be plenty of activities promoting friendship.

“We had such great success last year,” he said in a telephone interview earlier this week. “The school guidance counselors are our beacons.”
Fleres said Michael Bruno, who occupies the newly created position of supervisor of mental health, has been actively working with the schools. Bruno was formerly the guidance counselor at Oak View Elementary School.

“He’s been instrumental in getting this to another level,” Fleres said.
He and School Superintendent Sal Goncalves visited the Early Child Learning Center, Berkeley Avenue School and the high school on Monday.
Fleres provided a checklist of activities by grade level to The Independent Press; the schools are coming up with their own activities, in addition. According to the checklist, on Monday kindergarteners and first-graders made kindness gardens by cutting out paper flowers and displaying them together; traced their hands on paper; identified ways to spread kindness at school and then either wrote about their idea or drew a picture on the palm of their hand and decorated their fingers like flowers.

That same day, students in grades two to six explored different ways to say “hello,” researching with their teachers how to do so in different languages. These grade levels also discussed how to say “hello” to someone who is alone and how to reach out and help another person.
Tuesday was designated Bloomfield Schools Community Day. All students were to create a personalized name tag to wear and pledge to invite someone they did not know to walk with them to class, play at recess or have lunch together.

Wednesday was Chalk It Up Day, and students were to cover sidewalks and blacktop areas around the school with positive messages written in chalk.

On Thursday, with their teachers, kindergarteners and first-graders were to identify and discuss the various people in the community who they could talk to about their worries, including lunch aides, crossing guards, teachers and school counselors. That same day, teachers were to pass out Post-it notes and pair up students in grades two to six to write a compliments about each other to leave on their desks.
And Friday is Random Acts of Kindness Day.

“Challenge students to perform random acts of kindness. Have students write or draw their kindness act on a large paper to hang in the hallway,” the checklist said.

At Carteret Elementary School on Monday, Sept. 23, guidance counselor Dorren Bauer said kindergarten to second-grade students were greeted at their classroom doors by classmates wearing aprons

Bauer had purchased and customized with pictures of different ways to greet someone including high-fiving, waving and hugging.
“A lot of students chose a hug,” she said.

The entire school wore name tags and students were encouraged to greet a student they did not know. The previous day, a Sunday, Carteret parents had chalked sidewalks with positive messages. And Fleres also pointed out the significant assistance “Start With Hello Week” has received from parent volunteers.

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