At St. Anne School, kindness extends to both people and the planet. This past year, during Kindness Week in February and Earth Month in April, St. Anne students took on a unique challenge: spreading love and compassion while going paperless! They showed that caring for one another and the earth goes hand in hand through creative, environmentally friendly activities.
Creative Expressions of Kindness
From digital designs to outdoor art, students at St. Anne found inventive ways to share kind messages without a single sheet of paper:
- Outdoor Art: Kindergarten and Grade 1 classes took their kindness outside, using their bodies to form heartwarming messages and capturing them in photos that radiated positivity.
- Canva Creations: Multiple classes used Canva to design kindness messages, turning screens into canvases of positivity. Grade 6 created humorous posters, while Kindergarten made heartfelt digital cards that brightened their peers’ days.
- Innovative Messaging: Students took resourcefulness to new heights, using chalk, snow, and whiteboards to share messages of kindness—showing that paper isn’t the only way to spread joy.
- Digital Kindness Books: A Grade 4 class went a step further by creating digital kindness books to share with their younger buddies, building connection and creativity in one thoughtful project.
Deep Learning and Environmental Citizenship
St. Anne’s paperless initiative is more than just spreading goodwill; it’s about cultivating values and skills that last a lifetime. This project reflects OCSB’s commitment to Deep Learning which encouraged students to communicate, collaborate, think critically, and develop environmental citizenship. By choosing alternatives to paper, students learned to be responsible digital citizens, showing empathy, resourcefulness, and a commitment to the earth.
A Brighter Future
For the Ottawa Catholic School Board, kindness and sustainability are commitments that reach beyond a single week or month. St. Anne’s paperless challenge has inspired students to live these values every day, helping pave the way toward a brighter, more compassionate future for all.