Have a Seat on the Friendly Bench!

Hayward students build on an idea to make school a friendlier place.

The students in Mr. Roque’s 5th grade class at Hayward’s Palma Ceia Elementary School read an article in Kid Scoop News and got inspired.

Miguel said, “We read about the boy who put a ‘buddy bench’ on his school’s playground for kids who feel sad or lonely. We thought it was a good idea and wanted to do it here.”

The students worked together to come up with a plan.

“We needed to raise $180 to buy the bench,” said Alan. “We sold $5 raffle tickets and raised $280!”

The class decided to call it the Friendly Bench.

Yelamy said, “We are going to write a play that we can perform for other students to promote the bench, so they understand how it works.”

Pedro explained that “anyone who feels lonely or sad or doesn’t have a friend can sit on the Friendly Bench at recess. When someone sees a person sitting there, they can go and ask them to play or see what’s wrong.”

The Friendly Bench was carried out to the playground on April 13 at first recess.

Right away, an excited group of students circled around it, curious and asking Mr. Roque’s students questions about it.

Asked how it felt to see the Friendly Bench placed on the playground for the first time, Josue said, “It felt like victory!”

“The thing that impressed me is that this was all my students’ idea. They have done all the work and they will make it a success,” said Mr. Roque.

The students will take the Friendly Bench with them to 6th grade next year and have hopefully started a new tradition at Palma Ceia Elementary in which the next group of 5th graders create another Friendly Bench.

“We hope other schools make Friendly Benches, too,” said Alexis.