To support our question: How will creating school wide social and emotional activities help students to be kind to others, self and place? 

We are creating connections between buddy classes. Because Brighouse has grown so much in the last few years and because we have a mix of longtime staff and new staff, we have decided to have each class partner with a buddy class. By everyone having a buddy class this automatically creates a connection between two classes.  

As winter break approaches, we are finishing up our first buddy activity. Pairs of classes are reading “Circles all around us” by Brad Montague. They then, together, fill in a template describing who is in each of their circles. The circles are displayed in the hallways so that the Brighouse community can see all of the connections that our students have. 

Buddy classes are also taking a “buddy walk”, so that they can have casual conversations while being outside in nature. 

We are planning a specific buddy activity each month and we are asking for feedback from our students and teachers on how each of the lessons went.