Did you know that New York City Public Schools (NYCPS)’ Respect for All (RFA) Week is February 10–14, 2025? 

Throughout the week, City schools are celebrating the diversity of our student body and staff members while promoting respect and understanding through theme-based activities and lessons. We encourage you to join us and do the same!

Making Every Day Meaningful: Respect for All Week Activities

Making Every Day Meaningful: Respect for All Week Activities

Each day is dedicated to a specific theme, and every participating school will honor each day in different ways. If you want to join in on the celebration and need some ideas, we’ve got you covered! Consider some of the following activities:

Monday, February 10: Celebrating Kindness/Be an Ally 

• Celebrate kindness by wearing red and pink. 
• Twin with a classmate or faculty member. Teachers can pair up students (randomly) to dress alike. Faculty can do the same! Take photos and post them around the school. 
• Start a class gratitude session. Talk about a moment when someone at the school made a kind gesture or showed respect towards you. A small moment can have a large impact!  
• Design plain white T-shirts with positive messages and wear them later in the week. 

Tuesday, February 11: Anti-Bullying/Cyberbullying 

• Orange is commonly associated with safety and is a good color choice to wear to highlight anti-bullying/cyberbullying. 
• Know your rights! Start the day by reading the Respect for All FAQ and other resources available. Recognize if you’ve ever been bullied and what you can do to get help. Also, realize if you’ve ever exhibited bullying behavior yourself. 
• Decorate your school doors, walls, and halls. Create positive and uplifting artwork to display throughout the school's public areas. 
• Student role-play in interactive bullying scenarios—what would you do? 
• Pause before you post—what you write online will stay online forever. Think if you’re hurting someone's feelings or want to be known for your post when you apply for higher education, interview for a job, etc. in the future. What you do today matters to your future self. 

• Showcase student and faculty diversity by  
  • wearing your cultural outfits 
  • holding presentations with fun facts about your life  
  • having a potluck—bring and eat your ethnic cuisines to celebrate the school's diverse makeup and share recipes 
• Research the demographics of the City and NYCPS students, and discover how you’re part of one of the most diverse cities in the world.  
• Learn about inaccessibility and how it impacts our friends with disabilities. Can you identify ways your community is inaccessible such as a lack of wheelchair ramps and elevators at your school, subway station and more areas?  
• Do a lesson on screen readers. Make your online content and printed materials, such as flyers and posters, easily readable by all! 

• Wear the rainbow colors of the LGBTQ+ flag to honor gender identity, sexual orientation, and LGBTQ pride and acceptance. Check out other pride flags for outfit color inspiration as well! 
• Celebrate advocates for the LGBTQ+ community from throughout history and up to the present day. You can learn about history-making individuals with the “Hidden Voices: LGBTQ+ Stories in United States History” profiles. Like Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” and Ellen DeGeneres coming out on her eponymous show in 1997, what moments in pop culture stand out to you? 
• Decorate your classroom doors as colorfully as possible. Make your entryway to learning open to all students. 

• Teachers pair up (randomly or not) two students to each lunch together and provide some fun questions for them to discuss. Using their answers, each student can create a friendship bracelet for their lunch buddy. 
• Speed dating, friendship edition: Talk to someone for three minutes and move on to the next person. Use guided questions and recap at the end of the session. 
• Write a heartfelt note to your school custodians, cafeteria staff, school safety agents, and school nurse expressing your appreciation for them. This simple act can brighten someone's day.  

You can also find more suggested activities, such as coloring pages and lesson plans from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation. Created to build a culture of kindness in the classroom and at home, this site offers free resources throughout the year.

There are many creative ways to commemorate Respect for All Week. Show us how unique your school gets by tagging @NYCSchools on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, or Facebook using #RespectforAll. We look forward to spreading kindness and celebrating alongside you!