Kindness Activities
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Basket Full of Kindness – Family Activity
First find your “basket.” It can be a bread basket, jar, hat, bowl, or if you are crafty make one from strips of paper! Next, on paper you can write on that is blank on one side. Cut or rip your paper into pieces large enough to write ways you can practice kindness.
Get as creative as you want. Write down one act of kindness per piece of paper and put them in your “basket.” Each day, choose one kindness act that you will practice that day. There is no limit to how many you can practice. The more you do, the more your brain releases those feel-good chemicals. At some point in the day talk, text, or share what the experience was like for you: how it made you feel and how others responded.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Smile and make eye contact with someone
- Acknowledge others by greeting them
- Pick up trash
- Hold the door open
- Let someone go ahead of you
- Say please and thank you
- Notice other people being kind and acknowledge them
- Help clean up common spaces without being asked (Bonus: sing or whistle while you do!)
- Tell someone something you like or appreciate about them
- Give someone a hug (or send them a virtual hug via text)
- Share your favorite inspirational quote (hand-written, text, verbal—or through song and dance)
- Make a donation of something you don’t use or need anymore
- Make a snack to share with someone else
- Call someone just to say I love you (or have Stevie Wonder sing it on your behalf)
- Share something that made you laugh with someone else
- Do someone else’s chore for them
- Watch a movie with someone and have them pick the movie
- Offer to bring water to others when you are getting water to drink for yourself
- Restock the toilet paper roll, even if you were not the last person who used it
- Turn off the lights when you leave a room
kindness cards – Youth activity ages 13 – Adult
Create a card of any size using a piece of paper. You can make the cards by hand or design them on the computer. Include a saying, artwork, or picture to show kindness. Somewhere on the card add a note: “This kindness card is given to you in honor (or in memory) of _________.” You can also add a special treat, like a piece of candy or sticker. Give them to anyone you want, people you know, and/or people you don’t know:
- Family members
- Friends
- Teachers
- Colleagues
- Neighbors
- Grocery store clerk
- Postal/Delivery worker
- Server
- Barber/Hairstylist
- Bank Teller
- and more!
Kindness Flower – youth activity ages 3 -12
Kindness grows from within. Practice growing kindness by being kind to yourself. Make a flower with petals out of paper. On each petal write a kind word or phrase to yourself. If you are having a hard time growing kindness toward yourself think of things you would tell a friend to show them kindness. Make 1 or many and put them up in important spaces like your room, your door, on your bed, on the mirror you use to get ready, your sock drawer, etc. as a reminder to grow kindness from within.
Story Corner
“Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” by Carol McCloud