Here, we’ll explore what makes Kindness Week so impactful and offer ideas on how to make it a memorable experience for your students. Whether it’s celebrating World Kindness Day or incorporating fun kindness activities, you’ll find plenty of inspiration to get started. From group activities to independent crafts to anchor charts to book recommendations to a kindness challenge – these week of kindness ideas for students are the best you'll find!

Read on for the very best kindness week ideas for students in elementary!

Looking for kindness week plans and activities that are ready to go? This Kindness Week bundle is for you:

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• What Is Kindness Week?
• Planning Your Kindness Week Activities
• 15 Kindness Week Ideas For Students
• Kindness Week Lesson Plans

What Is Kindness Week?

Kindness week is a week or several days devoted to promoting kind acts in your classroom. Some teachers take a bit of time every day, or their morning meeting time, and focus on different ways of being kind. This can be a great opportunity to encourage kind acts and build positivity in your school community.

During this time, it's helpful to explicitly teach students tools and strategies to be kind. Elementary students are still learning important ideas like good deeds, empathy, and spreading kind acts within their school community. Kindness a great way for teachers to promote values that help shape students into compassionate and considerate individuals. For elementary students, it’s not just about doing good deeds but also about learning how to build connections and make the world a better place, one small act at a time.

Incorporating Kindness Week into your lesson plans is the perfect opportunity to…

• Create a culture of kindness that permeates the school day and beyond.
• Develop interpersonal skills like empathy, cooperation, and active listening through kind gestures.
• Emphasize social-emotional learning skills and social skills like empathy and friendship
• Give students practical strategies to express kindness, from leaving positive messages for a family member to participating in a kindness challenge.
• Bring kind acts into your school community.

Planning Your Kindness Week Activities

I've found that a great way to organize your Kindness Week activities into your school day lesson plans is to have a theme for each day. I like to read a kindness book, do a group kindness activity, and then make a kindness craft for each day that all tie into the theme.

Here are the daily themes that I use in my Kindness Week lesson plans:

• Day 1: Being A Kind Friend
• Day 2: Using Kind Words
• Day 3: Kind Actions
• Day 4: Being a Bucket Filler
• Day 5: Celebrating Kindness

Next I'll share the Kindness Week ideas for students that I use for each day – these are tried and true activities that will get students to use kind acts in the classroom!

15 Kindness Ideas For Students

Day 1: Being A Good Friend

This anchor chart is a wonderful visual to help students understand actions that make them a good friend. Invite students to brainstorm how to be a good friend, and how not to be a good friend. Often times, including these negative traits can be helpful for students, who need things laid out explicitly.

(You can get the template for this activity in my TPT store right here.)

This is one of my favorite children's books for teaching students the importance of kind acts and inclusiveness. Each Kindness is a poignant story of a new student who isn't welcomed into the classroom. The main character in the story must then examine her own actions and reflect on how she didn't make a kind choice.

This next Kindness Week idea for students is a kind friend flipbook. This is a great way to help students remember ways to be a kind friend. It offers them specific strategies for being kind, which are concrete ways they can practice kindness in their school community.

(You can get the template for this activity in my TPT store right here.)

Day 2: Using Kind Words

Remembering to use kind words can be tricky for our students! Use this class anchor chart to help students brainstorm kind things they can say to their classmates. It's so helpful for students to have examples of phrases they can use to be kind – you'll definitely be hearing those words around your classroom in no time!

(You can get the template for this anchor chart in my TPT store right here.)

Writing kindness notes with positive messages is one of my favorite Kindness Week ideas for students. This kindness craft activity invites students to write kindness notes to their peers using these kindness note templates. There are lots of ways you can organize this:

You can have students write to whoever they want to in the class, or assign them a student to make a kind note for. You can make them anonymous, or let students sign who they're from. You can do this once, or make the notes available at a certain time of day for students to write again and again. (One recommendation: It's best if they turn them into you, and you deliver them – this way you can make sure everyone is receiving at least one, and you can preview them if you are worried students might abuse this work and include a not nice message.)

(You can get the template for this activity in my TPT store right here.)

The children's book The Smallest Girl In The Smallest Grade provides a good illustration of how powerful kind words can be. In this story, a girl stands up for other students aren't being treated kindly. She uses her kind words to help them – this is a great story for empowering students use their words to help their school community.

Day 3: Kind Actions

A kindness chain is one of the most fun Kindness Week ideas for students, and it gets the whole class involved! Observe your students and mentally note anytime you see a random act of kindness. Choose a time of day to recognize students and share what you saw. For each act of kindness you saw, add a paper link to your kindness chain. Your students will love watching your kindness chain grow! (You can also have students share any kind acts they witnessed!)

(You can get the template for this activity in my TPT store right here.)

This Sprinkle Kindness Like Confetti anchor chart is the perfect way to help your students brainstorm kind actions that they can do at school. Invite your students to share their ideas and fill it up with kind things they can do for their classmates and teachers.

(You can get the template for this anchor chart in my TPT store right here.)

I love the children's book When We Are Kind for illustrating random acts of kindness and their effects. This book shows simple acts of kindness that we can carry out in our classroom and home communities.

Day 4: Being A Bucket Filler

If you've never read Have You Filled A Bucket Today? then this is your sign to do it now! The bucket filler books are one of my favorite kindness week ideas for students – they have such a wonderful metaphor for kind deeds and unkind deeds and how they affect one another. It's a great illustration that students can really relate to and understand when it comes to talking about kindness.

This Bucket Filler anchor chart is another kindness week ideas for students that encourages students to think of ways they can fill people's buckets throughout the day.

(You can get the template for this anchor chart in my TPT store right here.)

Then students can make their own Bucket Filler craft – filled with the ways they want to spread kindness in their school community!

(You can get the template for this craft in my TPT store right here.)

Day 5: Celebrating Kindness

I absolutely LOVE catching students being kind, so this is something I actually do all year long, but it's also perfect for Kindness Week ideas for students. This anchor chart is filled with positive traits of kindness. Throughout the day, make a mental note when you notice a student acting out one of these positive traits. Then pick a time of day to share what you noticed, and invite the students to place a sticker under the word that they showcased. Students will love being recognized for their kind acts!

(You can get the template for this anchor chart in my TPT store right here.)

Turn Kindness Week into a party with these adorable kindness crowns! These crowns are one of the best Kindness Week ideas for students to celebrate all the kindness your class has spread throughout the school this week.

(You can get the template for this craft in my TPT store right here.)

This book, Tomorrow I'll Be Kind, explores different positive traits and how we can live them. It's a perfect companion book to the anchor chart celebrating the kind traits you see your students showing in the classroom.

Kindness Challenge

One of the best Kindness Week ideas for students is a kindness challenge! This increases the fun to a whole new level and really gets students excited about spreading kindness.

(You can get the template FREE right here.)

This kindness bingo challenge provides different acts of kindness that students can do in their classroom community. Challenge your class to see how many bingos they can get!

(You can get the template for this bulletin board in my TPT store right here.)

This is another kindness challenge that becomes a kindness bulletin board for your classroom. Each day, students choose a random act of kindness from a paper heart. Once they've completed their random act of kindness, they put it up on the bulletin board. At the end of the week, your bulletin board will be full of different acts of kindness!

Tips For Getting Students Involved

Involving students in planning and executing Kindness Week activities is the best way to ensure engagement. Here’s how:

Invite Students to Lead

Give students leadership roles by assigning them to plan specific activities or projects. For example:

• A group could organize a “Kindness Bingo Challenge” with tasks like helping a peer, sharing a toy, or writing a letter to a family member.
• Another could design a “Day of Kindness” schedule to implement small kindness projects throughout the school day.

Use Small Groups

Divide the class into small groups to work on different kindness projects, such as creating thank-you cards for school staff or collecting donations for an animal shelter. This approach helps students develop teamwork and encourages collaboration.

Incorporate SEL Lessons

Design an SEL-themed lesson plan that focuses on empathy and the “ripple effect” of kindness. Discuss how one random act of kindness can inspire others and create a chain reaction of positivity. Role-playing scenarios where students practice responding to various situations with kindness can be a better way to teach these concepts.

More Tips for Teachers

1. Plan Ahead: Use detailed lesson plans to organize activities effectively.
2. Start Small: Even a little bit of kindness can have a big impact.
3. Celebrate Efforts: Acknowledge students’ contributions with rewards or shout-outs during the week.
4. Make It Relatable: Share stories or examples from your own life to connect with students on a personal level.

The Broader Impact of Kindness Week

Kindness Week is more than just a series of activities; it’s an opportunity to instill values that shape students’ character. By focusing on kindness, you’re helping to create a classroom community where everyone feels valued and supported. The lessons learned during this week extend beyond the school year and into the students’ lives as they grow into empathetic, responsible individuals.

So, whether you’re organizing a week of kindness or simply integrating more kindness week activities into your teaching, remember that your efforts make a difference. You’re not just teaching—you’re shaping the future, one act of kindness at a time.

More Kindness Inspiration

Need more kindness activities ideas? These blog posts would be perfect for you to check out!

Crafts About Kindness You Need To Try In Your Classroom

11 Fantastic Week of Kindness Ideas To Try In Your Classroom

15 Friendship Picture Books Your Students Will Love

Resources For You:

The post How To Plan Kindness Week Ideas For Students In Elementary appeared first on Love Grows Learning.