CHESHIRE — Doolittle Elementary School in Cheshire is using creative ways to spread kindness and gratitude throughout its halls.
A hallway window is currently covered in hundreds of sticky notes from students expressing what they are grateful for.
It’s an effort led by teacher Jen Guerin with the help of both students and staff. It's aiming to teach kids about how to be kind to one another and how a small kind gesture can go a long way.
“I am just hoping that something like this can boost the morale of the school -- that we can look for the goodness we have already and heal from tragedy,” Guerin said.
The gesture comes months after a sixth grader at the school took her own life.
While the school has had kindness weeks in the past, Guerin said they wanted to expand it from more than just a short period of time.
The effort also includes students in each classroom decorating the doors in words of encouragement and a kindness curriculum led by students and guided the school psychiatrist.
“I have learned not every kindness has to be very big and you can do something as smile at a person and give them a compliment and it would change their whole day,” student Abby Smardin said.
Both the students and staff said they have already seen a difference with students and they are hoping the lessons they learn are long-lasting.