Teaching Tip: Kindness Activities

Valentine’s Day is coming up next month, which is a day we can not only celebrate romantic love, but self-love and friendship as well. 

Use these kindness activities from our expert team at Calm Classroom to help your students feel the love and celebrate their classroom community. 

Noticing kindness

Kindness is most impactful when it’s noticed and celebrated. Keep a classroom log of kind acts. Invite your students to add to this list any time a classmate does something kind for them. For example, they might add a classmate who lent them a pencil, or another who shared some of their snacks with them.

Take some time together to celebrate these classroom acts of kindness. Talk about how receiving – and giving – kindness makes us feel.

Kindness circle

Sit in a circle and invite your students to give each other affirmations. They should state something positive that they’ve noticed about the person – especially efforts that the other person has made. For example, one child might say to another, “I noticed you worked really hard on your math today.” 

Complete the circle so that each student both gives and receives an affirmation.

Random acts of kindness

As a class, plan to do random acts of kindness through the week or the month. Some ideas include bringing baked goods for the school custodian, writing letters to the principal or cafeteria staff, or volunteering as a class on a field trip.

After each act of kindness, discuss as a group about how it felt to practice it. This can increase empathy and boost the power of kindness.

Self-compassion love letters

It’s important to teach students not only to practice kindness for others, but to also practice it toward themselves. A good self-compassion activity is to have your students write “love letters” to themselves. 

Instruct them to write to themselves as if they were talking to a dear friend. They should choose their words carefully, and point out many of their own strengths. What makes them proud of themselves? What is their favorite thing about themselves?

The Calm Classroom team is sending you love, and wants to remind you to love yourself as well!

Read our blogs for more kindness activities and ideas:

5 Kindness Activities Your Elementary Students Will Love

Is Kindness Good For You? Research Suggests It Is

Teaching Self-Compassion to Teenagers: Why It’s Important