Teaching kindness activities

20 Best Kindness Activities for Kids

Developing the idea and expression of kindness in kids is vital for holistic development. Kindness activities for kids help demonstrate the concept of kindness through a hands-on and practical approach. Children can take away valuable lessons on how to practice kindness and in what circumstances kindness matters the most. They can also explore more nuanced ideas such as compassion, empathy, and forgiveness, through the introduction of proactive kindness activities.

Let’s shift our focus to the best kindness activities for kindergarten that you can practice with your kids, and how to maximize their effectiveness through the right guided directions.

You can encourage your child to write “Thank You” notes to their teachers, friends, and family members whom they appreciate. They can focus on specific areas they appreciate the most and emphasize inherent traits through kindness. The activity can be performed during birthdays, before breaktime, or on any special occasion.

Ideal Age Range: 5+ years 

Things Needed: Stationery

What to Remember: You should let them take the lead on making the card/note.

SplashLearn inspires lifelong curiosity with its game-based PreK-5 learning program loved by over 40 million children. With over 4,000 fun games and activities, it’s the perfect balance of learning and play for your little one.

Try for free

Your kids can help each other with their homework and learn about the role of kindness in interpersonal relationships. You can set the right habits in momentum by encouraging them to help their siblings when they can’t finish their homework. By establishing this activity each week, you can imbibe the right set of practices as they grow older.

Ideal Age Range: 6+ years 

Things Needed: Guidelines

What to Remember: You can start by initiating an open dialogue about asking for and giving help.    

Related Reading: Ways to Make Homework Fun for Kids

This is one of the best preschool kindness activities for toddlers that can be performed any time. You can encourage your children to paint rocks of different colors and set them aside to dry off. You can then write positive affirmations of kindness on them as reminders for the family to be kind and giving.

Ideal Age Range: 4+ years 

Things Needed: Rocks, paint  

What to Remember: You can have your kids come up with the affirmations that they like.

A kindness calendar with unique initiatives can help your child be more motivated to be kind to someone throughout the month. You can add simple acts such as setting the dinner table, cheering someone with a joke, and writing a friendly note.

Ideal Age Range: 5+ years 

Things Needed: Calendar template   

What to Remember: It’s important to let your child come up with kindness ideas.

A range of books about kindness, such as The Kindness Quilt, Finding Kindness, and The Big Umbrella, can be read aloud for kids to learn about the concept. You can make it more exciting for kids by role playing with dolls, toys, and puppets, giving your kids a multisensory experience with these kindness activities for kids.

Ideal Age Range: 3+ years

Things Needed: Reading-level based books

What to Remember: Reading out loud in a playful manner will engage kids more effectively

Related Reading: How to Read a Book: 15 Best Book Reading Tips for Children

You can prepare and print out a range of flashcards with acts of kindness on them. Your child can pick one and set out to complete the act at school, at the playground, and other places. Examples of these could be helping a friend who’s fallen, thanking a teacher, and sharing a snack with a friend.

Ideal Age Range: 6+ years

Things Needed: Kindness-based flashcards

What to Remember: You can focus on correcting certain behaviors with the right kindness card

You can make an appreciation box for your family, encouraging everyone to write down words of appreciation for kindness driven actions. Your kids can learn to actively appreciate someone for being kind and share their feelings on paper.

Ideal Age Range: 5+ years

Things Needed: Small box, scissors, paint, cards

What to Remember: Encouraging your child to fill up the box regularly will keep them interested in the activity.

You can talk about kind acts throughout history, such as Princess Diana visiting hospitals, the Pay It Forward Movement, the brave acts of Oskar Schindler and so on. By talking about these acts of kindness, kids can feel a sense of community, history, and legacy around the idea of kindness.

Ideal Age Range: 5+ years

Things Needed: History books, lessons  

What to Remember: You can ask your child to think about why a specific act was seen as kind worldwide.  

If you have musically inclined kids, then encouraging them to create a song on kindness will be a great way to empower them creatively. You can ask them to create lyrics, melodies, and a dance step to go along with the song. The song can also focus on simple acts of kindness we can do every day.

Ideal Age Range: 6+ years

Things Needed: Instruments, lyrics

What to Remember: Having a dance routine will make the activity more joyful.

Related Reading: Children’s Songs When You Want to Dance With Your Kids

10. Volunteering at an Animal Shelter

This is a great way to teach kids about the wonders of kindness and its reciprocation in the form of affection and love. Animals are highly intuitive and can help kids about being confident in approaching them based on body language. Your child can participate in feeding, cleaning, and hygiene activities at the shelter to teach them the value of responsibility through kindness.

Ideal Age Range: 5+ years

Things Needed: Scheduled visit

What to Remember: You can have them visit different types of animals to see if they form a natural bond.   

The inherent value of donating and doing something good for others can be the foundation of kindness for many kids. You can start teaching your children about the joy of giving through this kindness activity for kids. Kids can search in their own closet, toy chest, and other personal areas for things they’d like other children to have.

Ideal Age Range: 4+ years

Things Needed: Boxes, books, clothes, etc.  

What to Remember: It’s important to focus on why it is good to donate things to other people.

Role playing through toys, puppets, and dolls can be great ways to help kids understand kindness instinctively. You can enact different situations, such as a girl sitting by herself at the playground, a kid crying because he fell, and a student with no lunch to eat. Through these scenarios, you can help your child think through difficult situations and act with kindness.

Ideal Age Range: 4+ years

Things Needed: Toys, scenarios

What to Remember: Asking your child to think from the perspective of different people will help.  

You can create kindness worksheets that focus on various questions, such as “what is kindness to you?”, “How can I be more kind to my friends?”, “My family shows kindness by…,” etc. These types of worksheets can be helpful in letting kids think about kindness from a holistic standpoint. They can come up with their own answers and examples and complete the worksheets.

Ideal Age Range: 6+ years

Things Needed: Worksheet template

What to Remember: Preparing multiple worksheets will help them think about unique aspects of kindness.  

Nature-based kindness activities for kids can help them establish a closer relationship with the outside world. By empowering them to take care of a young plant, you can help them become more responsible and caring individuals.

Ideal Age Range: 4+ years

Things Needed: Seeds, pots, mud

What to Remember: It is important to talk to them about why we need to be kind to nature.

Related Reading: How to Make Gardening With Children Fun and Educational

15. The Kindness Tree

You can prepare a kindness tree by placing twigs in a glass jar and cutting out green paper in the form of leaves. You can ask your child about the various acts of kindness they showcased, write them down on the leaf, and then tie them symbolically on the twig. With each act of kindness, your child sees the tree grow and flourish with leaves all over.

Ideal Age Range: 4+ years

Things Needed: Twigs, stationery, strings

What to Remember: You can make this activity impactful by involving your child throughout the process

Crafts-based kindness activities for kids can help them make something unique and memorable around the idea of being kind. They can add the colors of the rainbow on seven ice cream sticks and write phrases that are polite and kind to say. Examples could be “Please,” “Thank you,” “I appreciate you,” etc.

Age Range: 5+ years

Things Needed: Ice cream sticks, colors, stationery  

What to Remember: Focusing on why it is good to make someone feel good through kindness should be a key takeaway.   

You can prepare different scenarios for your child to explore through the lenses of kindness and compassion. Your child can talk about what they would do in a situation, and you can track for inconsistencies or lack of action in different cases. This can also help your child understand when it’s right to be kind.  

Age Range: 4 years +

Things Needed: Templates, cards  

What to Remember: It’s vital to let your child take the lead on answering the questions posed.  

A key determiner of kindness is thankfulness, which can be practiced with the activity. You can write “I am thankful for” at the center of a sheet of paper and have your child write all the things they’re thankful for on the corners. They can choose to fill out the sheet of paper over time, making this a year-long record of kindness shown by others.

Age Range: 4+ years 

Things Needed: Stationery  

What to Remember: You can showcase examples of what you are thankful for to initiate the activity. 

You can make a giving jar and encourage your kids to fill it up with things they’d like other members of the family to have. From sweets to toys, they can give away things they think would bring a smile on someone’s face or make someone’s day better.

Age Range: 6+ years

Things Needed: Glass jar  

What to Remember: It is important to let your child organically give away things that they think will be helpful to others.

You can encourage your child to use Origami, arts and crafts, and other interesting ways to make handmade gifts. They can make hearts, hugs, toys, and other cool presents for their parents, friends, siblings, and grandparents.

Age Range: 5+ years

Things Needed: Stationery  

What to Remember: Focusing on why it is good to make someone feel good through kindness should be a key takeaway.  

Related Reading: Minute Best Crafts for Kids to Make at Home

Actively teaching kindness through instructions, guides, and activities helps kids proactively learn the concept from a theoretical and practical standpoint. Kids may be feeling certain emotions and want to help someone in need without vocalizing that expression as “kindness.”

It is also important to teach kids about kindness so that they can understand the concept through a practical lens. They can make the cognitive connection that certain actions are kind, while others are unkind or rude. This helps them navigate the world better, treat their peers with respect, and be more considerate about others’ feelings.

You can also mold your child to be more kind and giving with the right types of activities. More engaging and outdoors activities for kids that involve kindness as a core virtue can teach them the right steps to practice each day. Kids can learn good behaviors through playful activities that allow them to explore different aspects of what it means to be kind.

Kindness is also a fruitful tool for social bonding in classrooms and developing lifelong relationships at an early age. Your child can be better socially adjusted at school and be more open to dynamic environments. They can actively recognize and reward kindness in other kids and become close friends with them by being more kind.

You can transform the way your child sees the world by introducing kindness at an early age. Your children can learn through kindness activities that are designed to help them think from different aspects.

By understanding and exploring different types of kindness gestures and actions, they can learn practical strategies for interacting with their surroundings. They can learn how to share toys, forgive their friends, appreciate their teachers, and make someone happy.

You can also empower your children with self-kindness, which is a direct predecessor to self-esteem. You can teach your kids to learn how to talk to themselves when they make a mistake or feel embarrassed about something. Through self-kindness, they can reshape their inner narrative to that of love, compassion, and forgiveness for shortcomings.

Related Reading: Best & Important Character Traits for Kids That All Parents Must Instill

Let’s Conclude

Kindness is a universal feeling, and kids can start learning about it at an early age. Through kindness activities for kids, children can understand what it means to be kind and when it’s right to be kind to someone. You can also teach your children about the impact of kindness on our surroundings, our society, and our family, through different activities that spark curiosity and engaged thinking.

What’s next? We can make these activities that much more impactful by making them a part of everyday activities and integrating them in play and during leisure time. Kids can understand the importance of kindness in our lives when they practice these activities every few days.

How often can I do kindness activities with my kids?

Weekly activities that focus on some form of kindness expression or extended one-off activities that grow over time can be impactful for young kids.

How can I make kindness activities more fun?

You can make kindness activities for kids more fun by involving toys, musical instruments, videos, and other multi-sensory tools. You can also continue to introduce new activities regularly to make it more fun for kids.

How do I explain the differences between kindness, compassion, and empathy?

By focusing on role playing activities, guides, books, and songs, you can teach the differences between kindness, compassion, and empathy.

At what age can kids learn about kindness?

Kids as young as the age of three years can understand the concept of kindness at a rudimentary level.

5 awesome activities for teaching kindness (Bonus: free lesson) - Classcraft Blog

Kindness is powerful. It’s also contagious. According to science, kindness doubles when you share it. Studies have shown being kind boosts your serotonin, eases anxiety, and can lower blood pressure, which is really good for your heart. 

See how even a daily dose of a tiny bit of kindness can change so much. 

Double the kindness? That sounds pretty good right about now because this great big world could use a lot more of it!

Luckily, there are a lot of people trying to make the world a better place. Like our friends at UNESCO MGIEP, who are focused on using social emotional learning to help build peaceful and sustainable societies. Through their #KindnessMatters movement, they’ve recorded more than 8,300 acts of kindness from young people across the world.

So, kindness: Science supports it and the world needs it. And you’re likely already trying to encourage empathy, inclusion, and acceptance in your classroom. Ready for some extra ideas that might help? 

In celebration of World Kindness Day (Nov. 13), we’ve challenged our Classcraft team to share acts of kindness. Here are some of our team’s ideas — adapted to your classroom. 

5 activities for teaching kindness in class

1. Send kindness postcards  

All it takes to uplift someone is a few kind words. Invite your class to write short, encouraging messages to each other. Level this activity up by inviting them to write notes of appreciation to school staff that you could distribute during appreciation weeks.

2. Take gratitude brain breaks

Brain breaks are a super way to get your students refocused. Reset their stressed-out brains by engaging them to think about the things they are grateful for or, even better, the things their classmates do that they are grateful for.

If your class is using Kudos, you could take this time to present the Kudos Wall so your class can see and hear all the great things they are saying about each other. 

3. Make it rain kindness cards 

Encourage your students to anonymously write uplifting messages and inspirational quotes on sticky notes and leave “kindness cards” all around the classroom, school, or even their neighborhood.

4. Start your class with a Random Event

Random Events in Classcraft are known for being silly, fun, and meaningful. Since you can customize your own events, create one focused on kindness. To make it easier, copy-paste this effect: 

We all get 10 minutes to be kind to each other! Tell someone something you like about them, why you like to have them around you, or find another way to be kind to them! Be kind to as many people as you can before time is up! The more random acts of kindness we can do, the more XP we all get!

5.

Help your students see how small acts can have a big impact with a game of kindness bingo. Make sure all the squares have actions that seem small but have a big impact like making someone laugh, saying “thank you”, or smiling at someone. 

There are lots of free printable bingo cards out there. One of our favorites is this one from Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.

Bonus: free kindness lesson

Need a short lesson to teach your tribe about kindness? Try the quest “Random Acts of Kindness!”

This lesson was created by teacher Julie Desmarais for her grade 6 English Language Arts class. You can easily update it to any grade or subject you’re teaching. Import this quest to easily incorporate kindness into your curriculum.

teach children to care - Child Development

Caring is our ability to recognize and respond to the needs and suffering of others. As an important part of our inner compass, it includes the ways in which we show compassion, empathy, and kindness to people throughout our lives.

Human kindness is especially activated during the holidays. This is a time to understand how the process of giving a gift can influence the formation of values ​​in children, as well as the opportunity to develop kindness in them - a virtue that increases our spiritual well-being.

During the holidays, parents show a lot of kindness to their children. We buy gifts, bake special treats, and work very hard to make them feel part of their unique culture and faith.

Do our good deeds towards children make us happy parents? Of course they do.

Indeed, research shows that our self-esteem and inner comfort increase when we practice the art of kindness with our children, family, friends, and community. Good deeds give us more than just pleasure. People who are kind and compassionate are more likely to be much more successful in life, both socially and financially.

 
 Teach kindness 
 
 Chapter 2 
 
 POV author 
 
 —I was just raised like this—Put my light blue backpack on the floor, Tae. 
 
 —Well, I'm not here, so you can help me with this, give me the phone—the older held out his hand. 
 
 —Here you are—He gave away his gadget. 
 
 “Mmmm, password, doesn’t God’s dandelion have something to hide?” Jeongguk drawled. 
 
 —No..... It's just..... They all bet and I bet, give it back—Tae carefully took his phone from the paws of the dark-haired man. 
 
 — Write down my number — Guk laughed. 
 
 —Ah, yes, all right, my 89206567803—The younger one dictated. 
 
 —89203458214, now we are always in touch outside the university, but at the university you will go with me—Jungkook gave instructions. 
 
 “What is my job?” The blue-haired man asked softly. 
 
 —Well, you have to change me by telling your good things, start—The elder sat down more comfortably. 
 
 —All right, let's get started—Kim got up from his seat. 
 
 POV taehyung 
 
 In the corner of the room, next to a small bed, was a blackboard with markers. I rolled out the board and placed it in front of Jeon. 
 
 “Like school,” Jungkook chuckled. 
 
 —A girl walked in front of you and dropped her bag, what did you do?—I drew two people and a bag on the board. 
 
 - I'll get around, don't be a fucking slob - 
 
 —No, you have to pick up the bag and give it to her—I almost burst into tears. 
 
 —But she herself is to blame—he began to be indignant. 
 
 —Let's go, a guy on the street hit you hard with his shoulder, but he apologized, what are you going to do?—I asked hopefully. 
 
 —Yes, I'll run into him, who taught him to walk? —He's about to explode. 
 
 "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Not it out off" 
 
 "Where's the goodness in that?" he asked. 
 
 —Kindness in the ability to forgive, in the desire to help, kindness in beauty—I crucified myself and looked at him with shining eyes. 
 
 pov jungkook 
 
 He began to tell this so furiously, as if it were his religion, then he looked at me, his eyes shone like moonlight, they so resembled her eyes ..... They say correctly, if a person is good, then everything and his soul is good and body. 
 
 “I don't like theory, let's get down to practice,” I said lazily, getting up from my chair. 
 
 —Come on—He picked up his backpack from the floor. 
 
 We went out into the corridor, now it was a big break for lunch, so there is a lot of time. 
 
 POV author 
 
 They walked side by side, all eyes on Jungkook doubled anyway. Now gossip will surely run. With so much attention, Taehyung felt uneasy. 
 
 A girl ran to meet them, she stopped in front of Jung and started... 
 
 —Jungkook~i, I like you for a long time, let's date—this person suggested without hesitation. 
 
 —Shit a—The elder put it as rudely as possible. 
 
 —JUNGUK, NOT THIS, YOU HAVE TO BE POLITE, REFUSE HER A MORE SMOOTH FORM—Jungkook whispered very furiously in his ear. 
 
 —How?—Jungkook panicked—Listen, I like another girl, I can’t accept your feelings, so fuck off—He tried very hard. 
 
 The girl lowered her head and left. The students around started whispering and Kim smiled like crazy. 
 
 —YOU ARE JUST A GOOD GUY—he squeaked into the ear of the dark-haired one—Except for the last one, but you are going in the right direction— 
 
 — Yes, I'm just perfection — the elder straightened his bangs imposingly, heading to the secret room. 
 
 When they were halfway through, a guy with a rather attractive appearance ran up to Jung. 
 
 —JUNG JUNGUK I LOVE YOU—The guy yelled and tried to kiss the elder. 
 
 Then received a powerful blow to the jaw. 
Learn more

		
Word games for second graders
				
Short bedtime stories about princesses
				
Spaceships for toddlers
				
Games for preschoolers to play
				
How to determine lexile level of a book
				
Learn to read toys for 5 year olds
				
Sight word activities to do at home
				
Activities for short vowel sounds
				
Verb example list
				
1St grade reading series
				
Learning alphabet letters