In these challenging times, it’s essential to remember that acts of kindness, whether grand or subtle, can make a profound difference. Whether it’s showing kindness to ourselves, to those around us, or to the world at large, every gesture counts. If you’re on the lookout for activities to help your students spread kindness in various ways, we’ve got some suggestions for you!
Kindness Towards Ourselves
One of the most overlooked aspects of kindness is self-kindness. Encourage your students to delve deep into their feelings and recognize the positive aspects of their lives with our Gratitude Journaling Prompts activity. Through this activity, they’ll engage with prompts that nurture feelings of gratitude and thankfulness. By focusing on the brighter side of life, they’ll not only foster self-appreciation, but also practice mindfulness. A simple prompt like: “What made you smile today?” can spark a world of positive reflections.
Kindness Towards Others
The world becomes a smaller place when we understand and appreciate the communities around us. Engage your students in a fun and creative project with our Far Away Friends activity. Here, they’ll collaboratively create a book detailing their community – from local hangouts to the natural beauty that surrounds them. Once done, they’ll get a chance to explore a partner class’s community through their book. This activity is a wonderful way to highlight the similarities and differences in how we live, promoting kindness, collaboration, and inclusivity.
Understanding the Role of Empathy in Navigating Kindness in the Classroom
At Empatico, we think of empathy as a multidimensional skill set that can be broken down into nine categories. Rooted in research literature from education, psychology, sociology, conflict resolution, and communication, the Empatico team devised the Empathy Framework to express our comprehensive approach to building life-long empathetic skills. The framework identifies three distinct domains of empathy: emotional, cognitive, and behavioral. There are also three levels of application or interaction: practicing empathy towards yourself, towards your community, and towards those outside of your immediate community.
To learn more about how to use the Empathy Framework to help students practice kindness towards themselves and others, or to receive a weekly newsletter with more empathy-building activities, join us at Empatico.org.
Once you sign up for a free Empatico account, you’ll also have full access to our library of research-based classroom and virtual exchange activities, and an educator community committed to building a more empathetic future together.
Sign up now and start your journey with us!
