SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) —The Tea Area School District is celebrating kindness this week, with some high schoolers hosting a special assembly for younger students.
Kindness was in the lesson plan at Frontier Elementary Wednesday.
“We brought our high school students in to celebrate World Kindness Day for the elementary students. And we think it’s a really big deal to get elementary students involved in celebrating kindness and differences and that’s all Best Buddies at the high school is about,” Tea High School English teacher Abby Gullickson said.
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“This is our first year with Best Buddies actually. So it’s just making sure that the people with disabilities feel included and have friends,” president of Tea Area Best Buddies Ava Opland said.
Students who are part of the Best Buddies program helped lead the assembly.
“We really tried to tailor to elementary students, like, what can they do to show kindness?” Gullickson said. “So eating with someone at lunch and making sure someone has someone to play with at recess and, you know, safe like hallway etiquette kind of thing, but making sure that they know that kindness is important.”
“I hope they learn that it’s okay to be different. It’s okay to not be exactly like the others and be unique,” Opland said. “And that being yourself and making new friends is all what life is about.”
It’s a valuable lesson, no matter your age.
“If there is no kindness in the world, then people will just be mean to each other,” Frontier Elementary 3rd Grader Emersyn Stich said. And then there would be, like, no friends and you wouldn’t have anybody to talk with so that it would literally like, not be a world.”
The Tea Area High School Best Buddies will go to other schools on Friday.
