Kindness Activities for Kids
How can we teach students the importance of kindness? If you ask any student, they can describe a time when someone showed them an act of kindness and how it made them feel.
Likewise, the negative effects of someone being unkind can have a lasting impression on people. Using these kindness activities, students can develop social emotional learning skills in the classroom. In this post, you’ll learn:
ways to discuss why it’s important to be kind
the best books to teach kindness
kindness activities for kids
Why It’s Important to be Kind
You can teach students the power of using kind words with a simple class discussion.
All you need is a heart made with red butcher paper and a little time to touch a heart and change a mind.
During your morning meeting, tell students that you are going to have an important lesson about being kind.
Have students take turns passing around the paper heart and say something unkind to it. As they are speaking to the heart, tell students to also give the heart a squeeze.
After the heart makes its way around the circle, discuss with students their observations about the heart.
What did the unkind words do to the shape of the heart?
To heal the heart, offer the idea of putting a band-aid on it.
Ask students if they think it will help fix the rips and wrinkles in the heart.
When they notice that the heart is still damaged, help them make the connection that their words can do the same damage.
Even when we apologize to someone for using unkind words, those words can stay with that person.
Hang up the heart in the classroom as a visual reminder to your students of the power of their words.
The Best Books to Teach Kindness
Chocolate Milk, Por Favor by Maria Dismondy
Johnny learns an important lesson about treating others with kindness when a new student named Gabe joins his class. Although it's hard for Johnny to accept Gabe at first, he realizes that they have a lot in common and become great friends.
Kindness is My Superpower by Alicia Ortego
Lucas learns all about the power of words when he says something unkind to a friend. His mom teaches him all about what it means to be kind and how you can use kindness as a superpower.
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
Chloe and her friends learn the power of kindness a little too late. This book focuses on how being unkind can make someone feel. This book is perfect for sparking up a great classroom discussion about little acts of kindness.
Activities that Promote Kindness
Now that your students understand what it means to be kind, they can put their new knowledge to use in the classroom and community.
Kindness Chain
Students will be excited to spread a little more kindness when they have the opportunity to share the occasion with others.
Keep track of acts of kindness using a kindness chain. You can hang up the chain around the classroom and students can add to it all year long.
Can you make it a goal to work through the year to create a chain that’s as long as the width of the classroom?
Kind Superheros
Teach students about their kind superpowers by labeling the superhero with qualities of kindness.
Students can recruit more kind kids by creating a poster that advertises the kindness club. Hang the posters around your classroom to promote kindness and inspire your students.
Spreading Sweetness with Milk and Cookies
Put your classroom kindness on display with a cute kindness craft. Students will write all the ways that they showed kindness on their batch of cookies.
Wrap-Up
No matter if you’re at home or at school, kindness is always on the menu. Use these kindness activities to promote kindness in your classroom daily.
Use the paper heart classroom discussion to show students the power of their words.
Show students what it means to be kind with beautiful books.
Put kindness on display with fun kindness crafts and posters.
Want to try this later? Save these Kindness Activities to your favorite Pinterest board.