Sprinkle Kindness Everywhere

A child's hands holding a pink rose to show kindness

The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandness intention.  -Oscar Wilde

Caring, gentleness, compassion, generosity, and patience may be some words that come to mind when thinking about kindness.  Kindness may seem like such a simple and straight-forward concept, yet it may not always be an easy

act.  It is my belief that most people have good intentions and kind hearts.  However, misunderstandings, anger, and hurt feelings may be some reasons that interfere with one's ability to act in a kind manner.   Learning calming down techniques, empathy, and seeing another person's point of view are some ways that encourage and lead to kind acts.   In addition to one's temperament, another factor contributing to kindness, may be one's natural personality type.  For example, some people are introverts and shy by nature.  They may appear quiet and standoffish, when in reality, they just need a little more time to feel comfortable.  They may be kind people, who are misunderstood.

Why is it important to teach kindness to children?   I believe the key to success in life is rooted in living a happy and fulfilled life.  We are all aware of social problems in school, such as bullying, and disrespect.  If childhood problems like those are not properly dealt with, there is a risk children may grow up to be unhappy people, who may cause stress or pain to others.    It's therefore important to model kind acts to children at a young age.  For example, a parent may teach their child the importance of charity work by helping others in need.  This may be modeled and done with the child through toy and clothing donations.   The possibilities are endless when it comes to acts of kindness that children may participate in.  Here are a few to get you started...
  • Do a chore for someone without them knowing.
  • Let someone go ahead of you in line.
  • Tell someone why they are special.
  • Bring flowers to your teacher.
  • Donate a book to a doctor's office.
  • Bring cookies to the custodian.
  • Invite someone new to play at recess.
  • Put change in a vending machine.
  • Make a homemade gift for someone.
  • Hold the door open for someone.
Those and many other ideas are available in my Kindness Packet.   The packet may be used by teachers, parents, school counselors, social workers, speech therapists, special education teachers, and other specialists.  Included in this packet are activities, printables, posters and awards.  To see full details, click here.

Kindness Teaching Packet

What is your favorite act of kindness?



5 comments:

  1. I don't know if I have just one favorite act of kindness. The one I do most often is donating to thrift stores, but that is almost selfish because it is also helping me by getting rid of things. I have worked at food banks in the past, but we don't have anything like that where I live now. I do a lot of little acts of kindness, but I need to figure out a way to give back on a bigger scale. Maybe I'll make that my mission this holiday season!

    Thank you for taking the time to link up at my first Teaching Tuesday link up party. I'm sharing your post across my networks, so I hope you see a little traffic coming your way. =)

    ~Heather aka HoJo~

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    1. Like you, I also enjoy donating items, and teaching my children to donate their items to those in need. I agree, it is a great feeling to rid oneself of unwanted items. I guess that is just a win-win!

      Thank you for hosting your Tuesday link up. I enjoy your blog and look forward to sharing it's posts across my networks as well. Take care!

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  2. Hi Jennifer,

    I am so all about the kindness teaching. It is the cornerstone of everything I teach. I love how your resource is set up. :)

    Shelley
    The Write Stuff Teaching

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    1. Thank you for your kind words! Kindness does see to show it's face everywhere. Your students are lucky to have a teacher like you who incorporates it in everything. Take care!

      Jennifer

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  3. With so much bullying going on in schools these days it's important that we teach kids to be kind. I like having kids do kind things for veterans. It teaches them to give back, to honor and respect our armed forces, and it also helps kids to reflect on what it means to be a good citizen.

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