Why you should start a Kind Kids Club
Every elementary teachers says it daily: “How do you think that made ______ feel?” Usually, this is followed by a long face and a shrug … occasionally even a smirk (grrr) … or if I’m having a lucky day, I might get the answer “bad”. This leads me to wonder if they know WHY that person is feeling “bad” or if they just know it’s the right thing to say.
So, how do you teach tiny humans empathy?
A few years ago I noticed a particularly high need. Kids were knocking each over without apologies or “are you okay?”s. They were saying hurtful comments, and really struggling with working cooperatively in groups because they all wanted to be in charge. Our classroom community was definitely lacking. Something had to change and quick!
That’s when I decided to implement a Kind Kids Club in my classroom.
The only way to know how good it feels to help others, is to actually go through the act of helping others. Most elementary students haven’t really ever experienced that feeling of knowing you helped make another person’s day better! My class uses random acts of kindness activities made just for our youngest learners.
This has become such an important part to building classroom community for my students. Not only do my students now feel like an important part of the world because they CAN make a difference, but they also feel connected to each other because they’re working as a team to make a difference.
Check out my lesson!
Here’s the Kind Kids Club unit I created. I begin with this sheet to introduce the idea to my class.
We kick off the unit with this AMAZING book about empathy! I highly recommend it! If you can’t get your hands on the actual book, I like this video read aloud from Youtube.
