Kids Helping Kids

Sample letter to send
home to parents
Dear Parents,
As adults, we often look back to our childhood and remember treasured friendships. As
children, many of us recall nurturing and caring feelings for those friends. Our friends became
an excellent support system then, as they do now.
In our schools today, aggression among peers has unfortunately become the norm. Negative
interactions often replace the nurturing and caring feelings that are associated with friendship.
Verbal, physical, and relational aggression have become everyday occurrences. A child whose
best friend becomes angry, jealous or hurtful, has a difficult time absorbing any learning.
To help bring about an awareness of this aggressive behavior and to empower the children who
are targets or “kids in the middle” and to reduce the number of instances of peer aggression, a
special ten-lesson unit will be implemented in the fourth and/or fifth grade classrooms. The
Kids Helping Kids unit is an elementary CASS: Creating A Safe School program created
by The Ophelia Project ® of Erie, Pennsylvania, and based upon the research of Charisse Nixon,
Ph.D., Penn State-Behrend.
The Kids Helping Kids curriculum focuses on:
Defining peer aggression with a special emphasis on relational aggression
Helping students share personal experiences when appropriate
Identify and understand the various roles of aggressor, target and kid in the middle
Creating a safe social environment by positively affecting social behavioral norms.
The culminating activity is an awareness-building campaign against peer aggression that your
children will develop and present to the school community.
It is our hope that by implementing the Kids Helping Kids program, students will be
empowered to deal with peer aggression and will choose to take actions to create a safe social
and emotional climate in their classrooms and school. Please feel free to contact us if you have
any questions. Thank you for your support.
Teachers’ signatures
©2006 The Ophelia Project ®
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