Classroom Kindness Challenge

Interactive Bulletin Board

Make a display to promote kindness in your school. This bulletin board can be interactive, too! Show students that kindness is uplifting and that we can lift each other up with our kindness. Leave these Printable Paper Slips near the bulletin board and have students write about ways they can be kind to one another.

Empathy Lessons

Another important aspect of holding a Kindness Week is using explicit lesson plans to teach students about what it means to be kind. One lesson about empathy that's my favorite is the Wrinkled Heart.

You'll need to cut out a giant heart from construction paper for this activity. You could also simply download our template here and then print it on pink or red paper. The template has a nice rhyming phrase that can be displayed after you complete the activity.

Show students the heart and ask them to share examples of unkind actions (school appropriate). If they feel comfortable enough, they can also share real-life experiences they may have had at school. As each unkind experience is shared, fold the heart. Keep folding the heart for each unkind gesture until the heart is completely folded. Then ask students to share positive experiences and kind gestures. For each positive experience or a kind gesture, unfold the heart. Complete the sharing until the heart is completely unfolded and open.

The visual of the heart is an explanation that when unkind things happen it can hurt our hearts (the folds in the heart). As we experienced kindness and forgiveness, our heart opens back up but it is still wrinkled symbolizing that even if we apologize for unkind actions, our unkind actions can still leave a negative mark on someone's heart.

Give students a smaller heart and have them write different ways they can be kind.

With my class, I read a story (that I wrote) about a boy named Troy. He was having a bad day, and each time something unkind happened to him, I folded his heart. When we were done reading the story, we went back and thought of different things that could have happened to help his heart. You can find the story here.

Kindness Challenge Calendar for the Month

Display this calendar for the entire month of January. Download the FREE Kindness Calendar here!

Challenge students to complete the acts of kindness listed for each day. You can also copy these calendars for students to take home and share with their families. Leave a copy in each teacher's mailbox, too.

Kindness Raffle and Prizes

Have your school staff make an effort to "catch" kiddos spreading kindness. Maybe they're completing one of the tasks from the calendar, maybe they're following behavior expectations, or maybe they're being extra polite. Use these tickets to reward those students and then hold a raffle at the end of the week.

Students would love to earn necklaces, coins, or bracelets, but I think they're most proud of being recognized for being kind.

Kindness Quotes for Daily Announcements

Each day of your Kindness Week share some daily announcements. Choose a member of the Student Council or another student leader. Have students announce the daily challenge from the calendar, share a kindness quote, and encourage students to have a great day.

These posters can be displayed in your front school office area as a reminder, too.

The phrases on the poster would make great kindness quote announcements!

More About Kindness Week...

We also worked as a school to reach 1,000 Random Acts of Kindness (RAKs). If teachers, yard aides, custodians, office staff, librarians, aides, administrators, or anyone from our school community caught students completing a random act of kindness (RAK), students earned a raffle ticket. Our student leadership teams helped to count those tickets so we could announce the number of RAKs each day during our announcements.

Celebrating this week at our school improved our culture and our students' willingness to share kindness. I hope it does the same for your school!