Fostering kindness in your classroom is a helpful way to build community and teach students empathy. Through hands-on kindness activities for elementary students, you can help them show compassion to others. Keep reading for five simple ideas you can do this week that get students to express kindness through their actions.
Scenarios & Group Brainstorms
Give students common social scenarios that happen at school and brainstorm kind responses together. This helps students think through multiple ways to respond with kindness in real situations they actually face.
How to do it:
- Present one scenario to the group (someone forgot their lunch, fell during gym, got a bad grade, or is sitting alone at recess). Perfect for morning work or closing circles.
- Give students 2-3 minutes to brainstorm individually or with a partner.
- Share ideas as a group and write responses on the board.
- Discuss: "How would it feel if someone did this for you?"
Reflection questions:
- Have you ever been in a situation like this? What would have helped?
- How would you feel if someone did _____ when you ____?
Why it works: Students practice thinking through kindness before they're in the moment, making it more likely they'll actually do it when opportunities arise.
Children's Books About Kindness
Children's books are filled with themes of kindness and provide an engaging, familiar format for students to see kindness in action through characters they relate to.
How to do it:
- Before reading: Ask students what they already know about kindness. Set the purpose of the read-aloud: We are going to look for moments of kindness in the story and think about how someone's kind acts are important.
- During reading: Pause at key moments to ask questions ("What do you think will happen next?" or "How is the character feeling?").
- After reading: Use the discussion prompts below to connect the story to students' lives
5 Children's Books for Kindness
Check them out here. What are your favorites?
- Be Kind
- Recess Queen
- Have You Filled a Bucket Today?
- Cool Bean
- The Invisible Boy
Discussion prompts:
- How does the main character show kindness in the story?
- How did their kindness affect others?
- How can you show kindness to others like [character]?
- What did you learn from this story about the importance of kindness?
- How has someone shown kindness to you?
Why it works: Stories give students a safe way to explore kindness concepts and see consequences without being in the situation themselves.
Sharing Kind Thoughts
One kind act we can do for someone else is to share our kind thoughts with them. Encouragement when trying something new, reassurance after a setback, or simple notes expressing gratitude or compliments all help students practice expressing kindness.
How to do it:
- Discuss with students: What are "kind thoughts" we have about others that we don't always say out loud?
- Help students identify people in their lives they could share kind thoughts with (classmates, teachers, family members, friends).
- Give students a simple template or compliment stems to help them write their notes.
- Optional: Create a kindness mailbox where students can leave notes for one another throughout the week.
-> Head to The Toolbox Resource Library and download the Kind Words Sentence Starters and the Shout Out Card Template.
Reflection questions:
- How did it feel to write something kind to someone?
- What made it easy or hard to think of kind things to say?
- How do you think the person will feel when they receive your note?
- When was a time someone shared kind words with you? How did it make you feel?
Why it works: Writing kind thoughts helps students notice positive things about others and gives them practice expressing appreciation in concrete ways.
Kindness Journals
Have students notice and record one kind act they saw each day for a week. Once students start looking for kindness, they see it everywhere.
How to do it:
- Explain that students will become "kindness detectives" for one week.
- Each day, students note one kind act they saw (e.g., holding the door, sharing supplies, helping someone pick up dropped papers, or inviting someone to play).
- At the end of the week, discuss as a group: What patterns did you notice? What kind acts stood out most? How did paying attention to kindness change how you saw your day?
- Optional: Extend to two weeks or make it an ongoing practice.
Reflection questions:
- What surprised you about the kind acts you noticed?
- How do you feel when someone does something kind for you?
- How do you feel when you do something kind for someone else?
- What's one kind act you could do this week?
- Who in your life shows kindness regularly?
Variations:
- Quick version: One kind act per day for a week.
- Deeper version: Note the kind act plus how it made you (or someone else) feel.
- Group version: Create a class kindness chart where anyone can add observations throughout the day.
- Challenge version: Notice one kind act AND do one kind act each day.
Why it works: The noticing is the practice. When students focus on kindness, they become more aware of opportunities to be kind themselves.
Service Projects
Service projects give students tangible ways to show kindness to their community through action. While these require more planning than the other activities, the impact on students is significant when they see how their actions help others.
How to do it:
- Brainstorm possible projects with students (e.g., picking up trash, planting a garden, volunteering at a food bank, being pen pals with senior citizens, mentoring younger students).
- Choose one project together.
- Plan the logistics (what, when, where, who).
- Execute the project.
- Reflect together afterward.
Service project ideas:
- Buddy programs: Pair older students with younger students for recess, class parties, help packing up, or reading together.
- Pen pals: Write letters to senior citizens at a local nursing home and visit at the end of the year.
- Community clean-up: Pick up trash at a local park or around the school.
- Garden project: Plant and maintain a school garden.
- Food/supply drive: Collect donations for a local food bank or shelter.
- Kindness rock garden: Paint rocks with kind messages and place them around the community.
Reflection questions:
- How did it feel to help someone (or our community)?
- What was challenging about this project?
- What did you learn about kindness through this experience?
- How did our actions make a difference?
- What other ways could we show kindness to our community?
Why it works: Service projects connect kindness to real action and help students see the tangible impact of their choices. When students participate in planning and execution, they develop a sense of ownership in showing kindness.
Get Started Teaching Kindness
Teaching kindness to elementary students is a great way to build community and teach empathy. With the five easy kindness activities, you can engage your students in showing compassion to others.
From role-playing scenarios of everyday social events at school to reading children’s books on kindness, sharing kind thoughts, keeping gratitude journals, or even doing service projects for the local community, teachers can use these activities to build a kind classroom.
Want to organize something school-wide? Check out this post: How to Create a School Kindness Challenge
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Kindness Activities
Teach kindness to students through quick, engaging activities. When students see kind acts and reflect on them, they are more likely to do them in the classroom community. Use these activities throughout the year to encourage kindness!
Kindness Activities Bundle
Build positive behaviors and a kind culture with simple, ready-to-print kindness activities that you can use around holidays like Valentine's Day or throughout the year.
