Kindness Ninjas make their mark at the Prep

If you catch sight of red headbands flashing by on the UCC campus, it’s a sure sign that Anna Crawford’s Kindness Ninjas are on a mission to bring a smile to someone’s face.
The Kindness Ninjas, now a worldwide movement, was started by Alison Apels, a kindergarten teacher in Airdrie, Alberta, who wanted to empower her young charges to be kind citizens who contributed to society and fostered change. Crawford, Senior Kindergarten teacher at the Prep, decided the movement was a perfect fit for the 18 students in her class as they embarked on a unit of inquiry focusing on how actions can impact the community. Her ninjas stealthily carry out acts of kindness simply to brighten the day for others; they have no expectation of recompense.

“I wanted to show my students that even though they are little, they can have a positive effect on the lives of those around them,” Crawford says. “Acts of kindness can have a strong impact on a community. The whole community becomes more positive and kindness finds its way back to you.”
 
Crawford’s students were inducted as Kindness Ninjas in a ceremony involving reciting a pledge and receiving the trademark red headbands prior to attempting their first mission, which was making a thank-you card for Edgar Friars of the facilities staff after he painted a bench in their playground.

They have – stealthily, of course – snuck into the faculty common room to leave each teacher a chocolate bar wrapped with a message of kindness; created calming jars for each Prep classroom; written a thank-you letter of appreciation to a police officer who visited the class; and posted a large kindness mural, reading “We can make the world a world of love” in one of the hallways of the Prep, among other gestures of love and kindness.

“The students are engaged and feel empowered as they sneak through the halls,” Crawford said. “The dramatic element really appeals to them.”
 
Before term’s end, other classes had deduced the identity of the ninjas, so, in the new year, they will be stealthily spreading their love and kindness further afield, undertaking some missions in the larger community.

After all, the world can never have enough kindness.
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