As the student population at Norman Rockwell Elementary School in Redmond becomes increasingly diverse each year, the school is working to make sure all families feel like they belong.

This year’s efforts involve students and staff creating a painting and sign — both of which were completed this week and are now hanging in the school’s front entry — to help people feel welcome in the school.

COMMON LANGUAGE

The painting is the work of the entire student body as students used their fingers dipped in paint to create a picture of the Earth and surrounding stars.

Principal Kirsten Gometz said the picture is to emphasize everyone’s common origin.

“We all live here,” she said. “This is where we are from.”

The sign, which hangs just below the Earth painting, has “Welcome” written in more than three dozen languages. In addition to English, the languages include Thai, Arabic, Macedonian, Swedish, Russian and Urdu.

Gometz said these all represent the languages spoken by current Rockwell students and their families as well as those they haven’t met yet.

“With such a diverse community, I see it as vitally important that all students and all families are welcomed and valued at school,” she said. “This project is a small piece of that effort.”

Fifth-graders Hiyori Hara and Miu Ikeda, whose families both moved to Redmond from Japan in the last few years, said they liked that the sign is in all different languages. The two girls worked together to paint the Japanese translation on the sign.

Chun Lu, whose son Jiajia Lin is a fourth-grader at Rockwell, was at the school on Monday for parent-teacher conferences and passed the in-progress sign as they were getting ready to leave. After learning about what the sign represented, she volunteered to paint “Welcome” in Chinese.

Lu, whose family is from China, said the school is a very international environment and Gometz and the school always supports its families with inclusive activities.

In addition to students and families participating in the project, Rockwell staff also contributed.

School custodian Chandara Hun painted “Welcome” in Khmer — the language of Cambodia, where he is originally from — on the sign. He said in addition to him, there are a couple of Cambodian American students at Rockwell.

While discussing the sign with families, Gometz said Rockwell teacher Julian Cortes, who was born in Colombia, painted the Spanish translation.

“He came to (Lake Washington School District) when he was in second grade and started his student career in the (United States) as an (English language learner) student,” Gometz said about Cortes. “He is a fifth-grade teacher now.”

EDUCATING ON DIFFERENCES

The Earth painting and “Welcome” sign was a project by the Rockwell’s anti-bullying club for Unity Day — an event for National Bullying Prevention Month to show support for students who have been bullied. This year’s Unity Day was Wednesday.

Gometz said parents, especially immigrant parents, want to know their children can belong and are safe at school — that when they drop them off in the morning, they will be OK. The painting and sign are a way of reassuring them, she said.

In addition to celebrating people’s differences, Gometz said they are also educating students. She said the fact that so many Rockwell students have lived or will live in different places is a strength for the school. And even those who have stayed and will stay in Redmond can still learn from other students.

One way the school has been working to educate students is food. Gometz said as students bring foods from home to school for lunch, others may react differently — and not always in a positive way. She said they try to let students know that while the food students bring in may look, smell and taste different, there is nothing wrong with it.

AN ALL-INCLUSIVE ENVIRONMENT

Ensuring that students feel included regardless of their cultural background is just one part of the school’s anti-bullying club’s overall work.

Gometz said the students want to make sure they have no lonely kids at Rockwell because lonely kids are more likely to either target others or be targeted when it comes to bullying.

Another project the club is proposing is a “Buddy Bench.”

The bench will be a place students can sit if they don’t have anyone to play with or don’t know what to do during recess. Gometz said from there, a student from the club — and eventually others — will then approach the student(s) and invite them to play.

There are already benches located throughout the playground area, so the club will designate one to paint and identify as the Buddy Bench. This bench will then be painted so students will be able to easily identify it.

Gometz said the club members will also go into the classrooms to educate students on the bench, what it will mean and how they will also be able to help other students feel like they belong.