Submitted by Beth, Wisconsin
A number of years ago, after the Columbine High School shootings, I had read how even talking about kindness made a difference in people's lives. I asked my students to do an act of kindness for someone, write it up, and hand it in bi-weekly. Students were not graded on this "assignment."
The paper they handed in needed to have three components. They needed to:
- describe what they had done for someone
- describe the reaction of the recipient (they could not tell the recipient this was an "assignment")
- write down how doing their act of kindness made them feel.
I randomly read some of the papers to the class without identifying the "doer." I kept all the papers that were handed in during the year.
During the last week of classes, I handed the papers back to the students. The classroom was very quiet as the students relived their Random Acts of Kindness. They did make a difference in people's lives.
2. Pennies with a Purpose
Submitted by Raquel, New Jersey
Each classroom is given a plastic 32 ounce pretzel jar. The goal is to collect only pennies and put them in the jar. When the jar is full, the class is given another one. The money collected will be given to Habitat For Humanity.
The purpose of this project is to show that one small act (symbolized by a penny) can grow into many good acts. One good kind act can grow into many acts of kindness. It is amazing to see how much money has been collected just with pennies.
This is also a good project for math problems (guess how many pennies are in the jar, how much does the jar weigh, etc.). The project has been very successful.
4. Valenkind's Day
Submitted by Susan
I am the advisor of our school's PEPP Club (Peers Educating Peers Positively), and we are sponsoring a Kindness Awareness Week. We have several activities planned.
- Students are creating bumper stickers with messages & quotes of kindness to place throughout the school.
- The week before Valentine's Day, students are selling carnations along with a Heartprint--a card that will leave a kind message or thought for another student. These will be delivered on the day we call Valenkind's Day.
- Proceeds from our sale will be donated to "Pennies for Patients," which is a national fundraiser for the leukemia & lymphoma society.
6. Kindness Bulletin Board
Submitted by Toni, Missouri
I am creating a Kindness Bulletin Board. We will brainstorm ideas for kind things to do unexpectedly for people... people who would not expect students to do a favor/kindness for them. We will put these ideas on the board, and when a student does one, they will sign their name on the act that is posted on the board.
Hopefully, by the end of the year, all of the brainstormed acts will have at least one signature on them to signify that someone acted in that manner for someone. Students will enjoy being able to write their name to be posted on the bulletin board.
7. Kindness Connects Us All
Submitted by Sue, New York
Right now I am getting a kindness activity going for our school. I am calling it "Kindness Connects Us All." When the kids are caught being kind, they get to design a pre-cut-out person shape that will be displayed throughout the school, hopefully connecting one end of the building to the other. This activity will keep us busy for a while.
8. RAK Sightings!
Submitted by Jill, Kentucky
I am a therapist in an alternative high school in Buckner, KY. The majority of kids are high school age; we have a few middle school kids. Since the first day of school, we have been recognizing Random Acts of Kindness (RAKs) observed by both students and staff. I have a large envelope outside my door that the students and staff write about the RAK that they have observed and who they observed doing the RAK.
Each morning I fill out a certificate that says: Therapeutic Hug presented to (student or staff) for (doing whatever they were seen doing). I handwrite "RAK" on the certificate and also include the date. Each morning, usually with a student, I hand out the RAKs during homeroom. We are working on printing up a new certificate (without the Therapeutic Hug part; it was all that I had at the time, and it has taken off!).
Initially, most of the notes in the envelope were written by staff members, but now the majority of them are written by students, which is really cool. Some teachers decorate the area outside their door with the certificates, some decorate a bulletin board in their room, and some of the students (and staff) hang their RAKs around their homeroom desk or on the wall near their area.
But when I see all the great "little" things that are going on in other areas of the school, while I might be in crisis mode all day, it really reminds me of the big picture. I also remember that both staff and students are recognizing kindness, and there is an abundance of kind acts happening all around us here at school on a daily basis. And these are supposed to be the "difficult" kids!!
But for the notes that are signed or if I recognize the handwriting, I often give the observer/writer a little wink to let them know that I know they just passed on the kindness by writing down their observation.
13. Letters to Inspire Smiles
Submitted by Claire
Most children love to write and receive letters from friends. How about getting the students to write letters to other students, not necessarily to their friends, which would make the receivers' day.
Or get all the students in the class to write something they like about each student in the class, then get them all back and write a list of everything the other students wrote about that student and give it to the student. I got a list from of my year 4 class members, and I've still kept it, and it still makes me smile. (Note from The RAK Foundation: We have a special sheet you can print out on our graphics webpage for this purpose if you wish.)
Both these activities help the students make more friends and realize that they are loved and appreciated.
15. Involving Students in Kindness
Submitted by Cathy, California
Greetings from southern California! I teach middle school (7th grade) English and Social Studies. I have 47 students in two classes. We will be celebrating World Kindness Week in November in several ways, at least one of which will be ongoing.
I. Students have started picking up Kindness Slips from me to fill out and return. I got this idea from your website. They describe briefly an act of kindness they did for someone else and then turn the slip in.
At the end of the year I will pass these back to the students for them to re-read and reflect on. Already, a few students have asked, "Would such and such be considered an act of kindness?"
24. 100 Acts of Kindness
Submitted by L. Davis & C. Adams, Iowa
Though respect of one another is part of every daily curriculum, to spark the midyear slump, my partner and I used this activity to help celebrate the 100th day of school.
We made a large poster in the shape of the number 100 to hang in the hall outside of our rooms. Several weeks before the 100th day of school, we would role play and discuss acts of kindness toward others.
Two weeks before the big day, we would announce open season on acts of kindness. We encouraged the children to recognize acts of kindness by others.
Each time they saw a classmate or friend engaged in an act of kindness, they would tell us and then be allowed to put a smiley sticker and their friend's name on the poster. The students couldn't name themselves, only others.
It was always easy to reach our goal of 100 acts of kindness. This made a profound difference in behavior, relationships, and outlook. It was a great activity that we worked on every year. We would often have children from other classes approach us and ask to put up a name.
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