Students rally toward kindness, reading

OLDTOWN — Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”

In response to this question, Idaho Hill Elementary students were each given pieces of string during a school assembly last week. With each gripping several strands in their hands, the kids were tasked with finding others to compliment while tying a string onto their wrist.

“You are nice,” and “You are a great principal,” were just a couple of the compliments overheard during the time allotted.

Though it was the first year the students had done the bracelets and compliments, the assembly is held each year at the school in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., said Idaho Hill Principal Susie Luckey. It is important, she said, for the kids to learn about his teachings, how he wanted to make a difference and wanted people to treat each other equally.

“We’ve always felt it was important to maybe help the kids experience what it was like during that time of Martin Luther King,” she said.

To that point, a segregation activity was held during lunch the day of the assembly as well, she said, where half of the students are given a sticker, and only the students with a sticker are able to sit at the tables to eat their lunch. Those who did not get a sticker had to sit in another area. Luckey said a retired teacher, Janine Jones, comes back each year to do the activity with the students before reading them a Dr. Seuss story from “The Sneetches,” regarding how to treat each other fairly.

“So at the assembly, we just try to tie in how we can change the world, and what a difference he (Martin Luther King Jr.) made in our lives and how we can carry that forward,” Luckey said.

The students were also challenged to be peacemakers — when someone does a random act of kindness and they see it, they are to write it on a pre-cut slip of paper that have been placed around the building. The slips of paper will create links of a chain that will be hung in the school, and Luckey said they try to make the chain as long as possible. As the Martin Luther King Jr. assembly came to end, the school’s second quarter reading challenge reward commenced with three teachers getting “slimed” with green jello by several of the students.

“The kids just love being able to do something that is a little evil, but it’s all in fun,” Luckey said.

Rewards vary at the end of each quarter, from sliming teachers to putting pumpkin guts on people’s heads. Last quarter they had a carnival, Luckey said, and another time they had an ice cream sundae party. During the ice cream sundae party, however, Luckey and one of the teachers volunteered to let the students turn them into sundaes. Each student also received a free movie ticket to the Roxy Theater and a gift certificate from Epic Coffee in Oldtown for some sort of treat.

To get the rewards, the students have to read at least 20 minutes a night during the week, and then turn in their weekly reading log for six of the eight-week quarter. Luckey said usually around half of the students complete the challenge. The reading challenges accumulate for the whole year as well, Luckey said. At the end of the year, the students who complete the year-long challenge typically get to go on a field trip to Barnes and Noble, where they can pick out a brand new book for themselves.

“They have to read outside of school hours to become good readers,” Luckey said. “So that is what we are trying to promote is that love of reading.”

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.