January 2020 – Continually Learning Academy | Professional Learning for Schools

"Catching Kindness" is an activity to bring awareness towards being kind. Students that are caught being kind, will get a heart. We celebrate every act of kindness that is caught! This is a great way to spread kindness throughout a school. Kindness is sometimes hard for children. Sometimes, children tend to not think of others. This can lead to a lot of problems in a classroom. Maybe you are noticing your students being mean to each other or younger children. “Catching Kindness” is a great activity to do with children anytime you feel students may need a reminder to be more kind towards others. I like to teach my students to be mindful of their actions and spread kindness throughout the school. I teach a lesson on kindness, then we do an activity called “Catching Kindness.” I also add in a Kindness Elf, that my students really enjoy! This activity can be done anytime throughout the school year. I usually like to do this around Christmas time or even the month of February, around Valentine’s Day. If you want to do this with your class, continue reading for ideas on how to implement it in your own classroom! Lesson on Kindness Whenever I want to start Catching Kindness, I always start with a lesson on kindness. I usually have a talk with the students about what it means to be kind. This also leads into a conversation about being a good friend or helping others. I love to have an open conversation about what being kind looks like and feels like. We talk about why you should be kind to others. This is especially helpful if your class is not getting along with each other. During our conversation, I write down their ideas on an anchor chart or on the board. I focus on what kindness looks like and feels like. I want students to realize that it feels good to be nice to others and it feels good to be the one receiving the kindness as well. I then start talking about what acts of kindness may look like. I want students to understand that there are many ways you can be kind to someone. I also emphasize that one act of kindness can spread kindness. If you are kind to one person, they may in turn be kind to another person. I also like to have a read aloud on kindness. One of my all time favorite read alouds is “Each Kindness” by Jacqueline Woodson. This book is an eye opener for how your actions affect others and how you may not have a chance to fix your unkind actions. This book talks about your actions as a ripple into the world: others are affected by what you do. Catching Kindness Directions After the lesson on kindness, I tell my students that we are going to do a challenge to see how many acts of kindness we can do and spread throughout the school. I wrote on hearts different acts of kindness, like say thank you, invite someone new to eat lunch with you, etc. I read all the acts of kindness aloud so students know the kind of things they should be doing. I also have some blank hearts that students can fill out for an act of kindness that they see. I then explain that I am going to hand out hearts to every student. The object is to “catch” someone being kind. So whenever they see someone doing the act of kindness, they will write that student's name on the back of the heart and turn it into me. Every Friday, or one day a week, I will read all the hearts and the names of students who did that act of kindness. I make copies of the hearts on pink paper. I give each student two hearts for the week and a blank one. I tell them they need to keep a look out for the kindness that they have on the heart. If they turn their hearts in early, I will sometimes give them a few more or just wait for the next week. I try to explain that students are to be a detective. They need to be quiet about this and not tell anyone what they are looking for. I also tell them to quietly write the name of students on the back of the heart and not announce it to anyone else. This helps to keep this activity under control so you don’t have any classroom disruptions. Displaying the Hearts I make a bulletin board specifically for the Catching Kindness hearts. When students give me the hearts back, I put them on the bulletin board. This is displayed in the hallway so everyone can see what acts of kindness my class is doing and that may encourage them to do the same. Duration of Catching Kindness You can do this challenge for as long as you want. I normally do it for a whole month or at least three weeks. This could also work in just one week as well, whatever works for your classroom! Catching Kindness Printable I have all the hearts and acts of kindness on our Teachers Pay Teachers store! All you have to do is print the hearts out and you are ready to start! Click here to check it out! (I also included Kindness Challenges and Elf Note Ideas) Other Ideas In the past, I have done the Catching Kindness challenge in December around Christmas time. I included a Kindness Elf (similar to Elf on a Shelf). Each day the elf would be somewhere around the classroom and have a note for the class to read. In the note, there would be a kindness challenge for the day. This would be something simple for the students to do. Some days, I would make the challenge a bit more time consuming if I had time, like making thank you cards for the custodians or principals. (Elf notes and ideas are also in our TPT product here.) This activity would be great to do around Valentine’s Day during the month of February. World Kindness Day is in November, so you could do this activity during that week! This activity can be done multiple times during the school year! You could do it for different events or even if you notice your students need a reminder to be kind. I hope you enjoyed this kindness activity and can implement it into your own classroom! Remember, check out our TPT Catching Kindness product here. Thank you for Continually Learning with us! Kyle and Sarah *We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.