Kindness Day: 3 ways to celebrate in your school community

“Kindness can become its own motive. We are made kind by being kind.” —Eric Hoffer, American philosopher

World Kindness Day is November 13th. While we should strive to be kind all year long, this is a special opportunity to celebrate being kind with your students, fellow educators, and school administration. At Along, we value kindness along with building meaningful relationships, because we believe building a sense of community and understanding with teachers and students is built on being kind! Here are 3 ways you can celebrate and acknowledge kindness in your school community:

1. Try this Along educator practice: Practice Random Acts of Kindness. This exercise asks you to perform five acts of kindness in one day to cultivate connection to others and happiness in yourself. By doing this practice, we get in the habit of doing nice things regularly, as well as notice them more easily, which can be helpful in working with youth. If trying this with students, you might start by telling them that research has found that doing things for others makes us happy. Then, pose the activity as an opportunity to test these findings. Do they find that being kind to others does indeed make us happier? Feel free to try this with your classes, after first exploring it yourself.
2. Engage in a service project. Write thank you notes to school staff, leave words of affirmation in library books, or volunteer your class time to a local animal shelter. Let your students brainstorm fun ideas and ultimately vote on their favorite. By engaging students in the decision making process, they’ll ultimately find greater satisfaction in the outcome.
3. Think about what you find kind and extend that compliment, gesture, or words of affirmation to someone else. Ask students what makes them feel good. Is it when someone compliments their outfit, lets them know what they like about them, or offers them their seat or spot in line? Challenge students to think about what they like, and offer that same encouragement or service to a fellow classmate.

Celebrating and practicing kindness can quickly become a habit. We hope these ideas are helpful to celebrate World Kindness Day in your school community!