World Kindness Day is observed on November 13th. It’s a great opportunity to promote kindness, empathy, and compassion in your classroom, school, and community. One of the most important lessons about kindness is that it is possible for everyone to be kind. It doesn’t have to cost money or take a lot of time. Here are some of the ways we celebrate World Kindness Day in our school.
Compliment Cards
Encourage students to write kind messages on cards and distribute them anonymously to classmates. You can use sticky notes or scrap paper. The message is more important than the materials used.
Spread the kindness further by creating cards for members of the community. Have students create cards and then deliver them to houses in the neighbourhood. Remind students not to sign their personal names, but they can include the name of the school.
Random Acts of Kindness Challenge
Challenge your class to perform random acts of kindness throughout the day, such as helping a classmate, holding a door open, or sharing a smile. We have a list of possible acts in this blog post: How to Weave Kindness into the Classroom Every Day.
We have put together a free kindness challenge that you can use. We’ll send it to you for free when you sign up for our email list. If you’re already on the list, you can find it in our Resource Library.
Kindness Chain for World Kindness Day.
Before World Kindness Day, create a paper chain where each link has a kind act written on it. As students perform acts of kindness, they add links to the chain. Work together as a class to see how long the chain can get by November 13th. Use scrap paper from your school’s paper cutter (it’s also kind to the planet).
Kindness Story Time
Read stories that highlight kindness and empathy. We have an entire list of books about kindness in our post, Books About Kindness That Should Be in Every Classroom. If you have a favourite book we’ve missed, we’d love to hear about it.
Have older students read to younger students (or vice versa). Younger students love to look up to older students and share a book. You don’t need to wait for World Kindness Day to read a great kindness book.
Kindness Journaling
Have students write in a journal about acts of kindness they’ve witnessed or performed.
If your students struggle with coming up with ideas to write about, we have used these Kindness Writing Prompts to get them started. It comes with ten days worth of prompts. Each day has three different choices of expository, narrative, or persuasive prompts (and there might be a few poetry prompts in there, too). The pages can be printed or used digitally. Find the Kindness Writing Prompts in our TpT Store ($USD) or our BN Shop ($CAN).
Kindness Mural or Art for World Kindness Day
Create a collaborative mural that depicts acts of kindness. Use a piece of butcher block paper on the floor or wall. We wrote “Be Kind” in giant bubble letters. Then, we allowed students to work together to decide what the rest of the mural would look like. They added words, hearts, and kind messages.
Another class painted a picture showing people performing kind acts in their community.
If you don’t feel that you have the ability to draw a mural, use a collaborative poster. Our collaborative posters come with 18, 24, or 36 pieces. Students colour an individual piece, and then they are assembled into a poster.
Find our Be the Sunshine Kindness Poster in our TpT Store ($USD) or our BN Shop ($CAN).
Kindness Bingo Game
Create a scavenger hunt with tasks that involve acts of kindness, such as complimenting someone or helping a neighbour. Start by making a grid with 16 squares. Have students brainstorm kind acts. They fill the squares on their bingo card. When they catch someone performing the kind act, they write the student’s name in the square.
Kindness Meditation
Guide students through a short meditation focusing on kindness and gratitude.
We found that meditations between two to five minutes have worked best. You will need to start with short ones and work your way up to longer ones. Start by asking students to find a spot where they are comfortable and can be still for a few minutes. Some students may want to lie down or sit at their desks. Let them find what is comfortable for them. Explain that they will be able to change positions during the next meditation. It’s important not to disturb others.
Some students don’t want to meditate. That’s okay. Explain that they need to be quiet, still, and respectful to the students who would like to try.
There are many different kindness mediations online. We’ve tested these ones out.
Kids Yoga Stories https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQN6wS753_w
Center for Child Counseling https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oVqjhIw8t4
Kindness Drama Circle
Perform a drama circle about kindness. A drama circle story written on a set of cards. Cards are handed out to students. Each student reads their card and performs an action. This triggers the next card. Drama circles teach students to listen, read expressively, and act. Our cards come with a variety of difficulty and amount of text so you can differentiate for your students. We’ve also included discussion questions and a teacher guide.
We’ll send this Kindness Drama Circle to you when you sign up for our email list. If you’re already on the list, you can find it in our Resource Library.
Kindness Pledge
Have students sign a pledge to commit to acts of kindness throughout the year. Decorate a piece of poster paper with the pledge and hang it in your classroom.
Do you teach in Canada?
There are other events throughout the year that focus on kindness. You may be interested in these posts:
- Use Pink Shirt Day to Make a Difference in the World
- How to Acknowledge Ramadan and Eid With Your Students
- How to Use Collaborative Tasks to Create Classroom Community
You can inspire your students to be kind, compassionate, and empathetic individuals. It doesn’t need to be saved for World Kindness Day. Remember, even small acts of kindness can make a big difference!
