There was bouncing, laughing, hugging, and dancing happening at Hawley Elementary School on Friday, February 20. As staff members announced over the school’s loudspeaker, Hawley’s first “Feel Good Friday Dance Party” was underway.

Feel Good Friday happens each week at Hawley, with songs played over the school’s loudspeaker, but Friday’s “Feel Good Friday Dance Party” was a special celebration to mark the school community’s participation in creating Support Kindness in Peers (SKIP) cards, according to Hawley lead teacher Keri Snowden and counselor Kimberly Laiso.

Creating and participating in the creation of the SKIP cards followed the school’s December celebration of kindness, which culminated in a Kindness Assembly in the school’s gymnasium on December 23.

Ms Laiso explained the school was further inspired by the National Random Acts of Kindness Week, celebrated from February 9 to 15.

The week before National Random Acts of Kindness Week, Ms Laiso said she visited with students to explain the SKIP cards.

 Filling out the SKIP cards, Ms Laiso said this week, turned the kind acts the students had learned to do in December around to focus on thanking the person who does kind acts or exemplifies kindness.

 During Random Acts of Kindness Week, as announced over the school’s loudspeaker on Friday, students were challenged to fill out 170 SKIP cards.

Each SKIP card was submitted to a teacher, who then passed the cards on to Ms Laiso to be copied. One copy went on to the student the card was created for and some of the copies were put on display in the school’s cafeteria.

Despite the shortened school week, due to the weather, Hawley students surpassed the challenge of creating 170 SKIP cards, by filling out 315 cards.

 Younger students at the school, according to Ms Laiso, filled out prepared cards that featured an elephant holding an umbrella for a puppy. Older students filled the cards out themselves, with personalized messages.

One of the cards displayed in the school’s cafeteria reads, “Thank you for always sticking up for me whenever someone is being mean to me. Also thanks for making me happy when I’m sad.” Others read, “Thank you for sitting with me at lunch when I had no one to sit with.” “Thank you for helping me get my coat and backpack!” and “Thank you for helping me clean up. I appreciate that.”

Over the loudspeaker on Friday students and one classroom were singled out for their SKIP card participation.

The top three students in the school who received the most SKIP cards were fourth grader Madison Freedman, who received 14 cards; second grader Alexis Keane, who received seven cards; and kindergartener Caroline Kaufmann, who received four cards. Third grade teacher Judi Qualey was named as the teacher who received the most cards.

Fourth grader Lauren Jacobs was named as the student who gave out the most cards, for filling out 13 cards, and fourth grade teacher Gina Shanahan’s class was named for being the class that gave out the most cards, filling out 59 cards.

One of Ms Shanahan’s students responded with “That’s amazing!” when the news was announced about their class. Another student said, “Good job us!”

“They’re an extremely kind class,” said Ms Shanahan, before her students called her to join them in dancing around the classroom.

After the announcement, three songs were played for the “dance party” portion of the special Feel Good Friday. Students danced in their classrooms alongside their teachers, and the fourth grade classes, after dancing for two songs separately, joined each other for a conga line for the third song.

Songs played were, “I Gotta Feelin’” by the Black Eyed Peas, “Everything is Awesome” from The LEGO Movie, and “Roar” by Katy Perry.