January 27 – 31, 2020

#KeepUPKindness

Empowering students to create a culture of kindness!

The Upper Perkiomen School District will participate in the 2020 Great Kindness Challenge (GKC). The GKC aims to empower students, parents, families, teachers, staff and the school community to create a culture of kindness. While each of our schools will continue to encourage kindness through a variety of means, there will be several district-wide initiatives during the GKC.

DISTRICT-WIDE GKC INITIATIVES:

• Each day during the GKC, there will be a "word of the day" related to kindness. These words will be shared on morning announcements in each building and will connect to classroom discussions and activities.
  • Monday, January 27: CARE
  • Tuesday, January 28: EMPATHY
  • Wednesday, January 29: COMPASSION
  • Thursday, January 30: ACCEPTANCE
  • Friday, January 31: SELFLESSNESS
• There will be district-wide Spirit Days during the GKC.
  • Monday, January 27: TEAM UP FOR KINDNESS - join "Team Kindness" - wear your favorite sports team gear
  • Tuesday, January 28: UNITE FOR KINDNESS - let's bring back the orange from Unity Day - wear orange to encourage kindness
  • Wednesday, January 29: PEACE, LOVE & KINDNESS - break out the tie dye to encourage harmony - dress like a hippie/flower child
  • Thursday, January 30: WORKING TOWARDS KINDNESS - look ahead to your future self - dress up for your desired career, wear a college shirt, or anything else that demonstrates where you'd like to be in the future - the sky's the limit!
  • Friday, January 31: KEEP "UP" KINDNESS - show that you are "proud to be UPSD" - wear your Upper Perk spiritwear or blue & gold
• We are in the process of becoming a "kindness certified" district.
• Kindness, kindness, everywhere!
  • There will be numerous signs, bulletin boards and displays dedicated to encouraging kindness throughout the district.
  • We'll be sharing lots of great stuff related to GKC on the district website and social media accounts.
  • As with Unity Day and the first day of school, we're encouraging the district community to take lots of photos throughout the GKC week. We're offering a printable sign to include in photos with your Spirit Day attire. Share your photos with the sign, Spirit Day attire and/or kindness-related activities by using the #KeepUPKindness hashtag on social media and/or send them to Communication Specialist Nikki Gum at ngum@upsd.org.
• There will be multiple initiatives to encourage kindness among our faculty & staff, and to thank individuals and groups for all that they do to support UPSD.

These are just a few of the things we have planned for the GKC, and we can't wait to see the myriad ways our community recognizes this great event. Check out the GKC website for more information on this national initiative.