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Activities for Kindness Week and Beyond

January 31, 2019 No Comments

I love teaching kindness in the classroom and not just in February.  I think promoting and discussing kindness with your students is one of the most important lessons we can focus on as teachers because it really needs to be practiced over and over again.  It’s not something we can focus on once and never revisit.

That’s why I want to make it a point to continue creating and sharing activities that can be done with your students throughout the year to reinforce the importance of showing kindness to others and doing random acts to show others they are appreciated.  February, being the month of love and hearts and flowers, happens to be the perfect time to showcase the importance of kindness.  It also happens to be the time of the Great Kindness Challenge.  This challenge is a nationwide event that takes place both at school and in your home to promote kindness. 

These activities were designed to be used in order to take part in the challenge, but, can also be used at any point in February and beyond.  So, how can you get your students excited about showing kindness to others?  Here are some ideas:

1.  Invite Them Into a Secret Club


What child doesn’t want to be a part of a secret club?  I don’t know one who doesn’t!  So in order to engage my students, I created a character named Vincent Valentine who founded the Cupid Capers Club; an exclusive club for children who wanted to share random acts of kindness SECRETLY!

Vincent Valentine sends a letter to the class, asking for volunteers to sign up and share random acts of kindness with others at school.  Each mission should be kept secret to the recipient of the R.A.K.

2.  Brainstorm How Students Can Show Kindness

Once students have been invited to join the Cupid Capers Club and sign their certificate of membership (so exciting!)  it’s time to brainstorm as a class different ways they can show kindness throughout their school community.  I love to brainstorm using the headings helping, saying, doing. When you brainstorm ways you can show kindness by helping, by saying, and by doing, it takes things to a whole new level for students to understand.

3.  Decide on Random Acts of Kindness that Each Student Can Do

As members of the Cupid Caper’s Club, students will now be tasked with completing a random act of kindness for another person at school.  That could be another friend in class, a teacher they have had in the past, the principal, custodian, secretary, anyone in the school community that they appreciate.  The idea is for students to think outside of their normal day to day and think about another person they care about.  Discuss with students what are some things that those people may need help with.  What tasks do they have to do that might be something they can do for them.  If students need help, kindness idea cards area a great way to help them choose a R.A.K. that would be easy and meaningful for them to complete. 
4.  Share a Secret R.A.K. and Pass It On

The job of the Cupid Capers is to spread the love around and also encourage those who get a random act of kindness to pass the love along.  Once your students have decided on a random act of kindness to complete, they can perform their R.A.K. and then leave a letter to the person they have chosen to hopefully encourage them to pass on a R.A.K. of their own.  The letter reads:
You’ve Been Struck By Cupid’s Arrow
and a R.A.K.
designed just for you!
Now, share the love and
spread it too!
Think of someone special
who deserves to know you care.
About the wonderful things they do, that
you find oh so rare!

 5.  Celebrate Their Hard Work!


Once your cupid capers have completed their own random acts of kindnesses, hang the sign, “We Are A Kind Class,” outside of your classroom and send home their heart tags to notify their parents!  Random acts of kindness should be celebrated!  Hopefully the excitement that you generate by celebrating these random acts of kindness lead to more acts done completely on their own throughout not just the month but the rest of the year.

If these activities sound exciting to you and think they would be motivating to your students, I would love for you to check them out further in my TpT store here or click on any of the images to see more!

6.  Use Extension Activities!

If your students have had success finding ways to show others they care and appreciate them, make sure to use extension activities to keep this momentum going.  Write letters to loved ones, create homemade valentine cards, and create crafts to decorate your classroom.  
One possible extension that you can do with your students are to create these adorable LoveBot crafts! Have your students reflect on their kind actions by brainstorming and creating these kindness crafts.  Our HEARTdrives run on Kindness makes a great bulletin board throughout the entire month of February or during kindness week!  To see more click on the images below or visit my TpT store here!
I hope these activities will set you up for success with your students during kindness week and beyond.  There are so many teachable moments to discuss the importance of kindness and these are just fun engagement activities to further those discussions.  I hope these ideas inspire you and your students to keep calm and R.A.K. on throughout the year!
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Welcome!
Welcome!
Hi! I’m Jayme! A former elementary teacher turned stay at home mom sharing toddler activities, mom tips, and educational resources to help you learn and play with your children. I believe in the power of PLAY and creating meaningful activities for you and your little ones to enjoy together.

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