Think Pink: National Pink Shirt Day

27 February 2013
February 27th is National Pink Shirt Day.  Today, our school was a sea of pink as we did our part to stand up against bullying.


National Pink Shirt Day was started in 2008 as a response to two boys in Nova Scotia who took a stand against bullying by supporting a boy who was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school.  These two boys saw the incident and went out and purchased 50 pink shirts to distribute to other boys at the school to wear.  You can read more about pink shirt day here at www.pinkshirtday.ca.

We kept the theme going in our classroom today.  I had slips of paper in my "name jar" with the words the bully, the bullied, and the bystander.  Each student had to choose a slip of paper to examine the issue of bullying from one of those three points of view.  The students then got into three groups to "talk it out".  They discussed what their feelings would be, reasons for the behaviour, actions, etc.  By taking the "role" of either the bully, the bullied, or the bystander, students felt more free to discuss the feelings as they felt they weren't being too personal, or sharing too much.

They then had to write a poem from the point of view they had chosen.  We used a simple "I Am" template for the poem.  The end results were SO powerful!  Students typed them out and I photocopied them onto the T-shirt template on bright pink paper.  We are going to read some of our poems at our end of the month assembly tomorrow.




As students finished their poems, I gave them another T-shirt template, this time photocopied onto a light pink piece of paper.  They designed their own T-shirts with an anti-bullying message.  LOVE them!  We cut the T-shirts out and made a wonderful bulletin board display with a powerful anti-bullying message to share with the school.

I have uploaded a copy of the template we used for the poems and the T-shirt to google docs.  You can click HERE or on the picture to the right to grab a copy for yourself.  I have read that April 10th, 2013 is International Pink Shirt Day - does your school celebrate pink shirt day?

Happy Wednesday!!!  We're half-way there!

Jen


15 comments

  1. Today was our Pink Tshirt day - only it was a snow day. Tomorrow is our monthly spirit assembly and crazy hair day, sooooo we are having Pink Tshirt Day on Friday (crazy hair and Pink Tshirt Day do not mix!). Our school made t-shirts with an anti-bullying message. Can't wait to see the sea of pink!

    Looking From Third to Fourth

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  2. Wow - what a wonderful idea! Thanks for sharing the freebie - definitely going to use it with my kiddos!

    ~Jessica
    Joy in the Journey

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  3. I will definitely share the international think day with my school... LOVE this!!

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  4. This is a wonderful activity! My school is just beginning a Bully Prevention Program. It's the Olweus program. Have you heard of it? We have class meetings once a week to discuss bullying and bully prevention. I am loving this program. This activity works perfectly with what we are doing. Thank you for sharing this!!

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  5. Those poems are aazing - thanks for sharing!

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  6. The I am the Bully poem is incredible! Wow! Can't wait to share this idea with my colleagues and share the poetry with my class!

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  8. I love the I Am poem template. I use it with my students to teach them how to describe themselves through metaphor. I love that you used it to ask them to take on different points of view. Great idea!

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  9. We did these today for our day of pink and they turned out so well - I was blown away! Thank you so much for the idea and for providing the templates.

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  13. I just used this yesterday! Thanks so much - they turned out awesome!
    Jenn

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  14. Celebrated annually around the globe, Pink Shirt Day began in Canada in 2007 ... Pink Shirt Day aims to create schools, workplaces and communities where all.
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