Don't expect kindness in schools—teach it!
Download our FREE K-12 lesson plans, lead a kindness project or form a kindness club. Our curriculum features developmentally appropriate, standards-aligned lessons that teach kids important Social Emotional (SEL) skills.
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Everything you need to know about our lesson plans, our philosophy behind kindness, research results and more.
Kindness project ideas appropriate for various ages, plus a how-to on setting up your own kindness club!
Individual PDFs:
Fun kindness games you can play with your kids & a good list of books to inspire kindness.
Individual PDFs:
Lessons and activities to inspire and empower kids. Specifically designed for after / out of school programs.
Individual PDFs:
After four years of rigorous research and pilot programs in urban, rural, public and private school settings, it’s conclusive—teaching kindness really does make a difference.
Students behave better, discipline rates have decreased, they are more inclusive of others, student conflicts have decreased and the relationships between students and teachers is much stronger.
“I learned that you can always be kind to somebody.
There is always time.” 4th Grade Student
The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation commissioned several independent studies which you are welcome to download and read for yourself.
A few papers that relate to the importance of teaching kindness / SEL skills to kids:
Kindness Scale: Measuring Kindness at School
The Impact of Enhancing Student's Social and Emotional Learning
If you have questions or comments about this, please let us know.
Students bring their own level of experience to any concept that is taught in the classroom, including kindness. Enter: Universal Design for Learning (UDL), the theoretical underpinning for our curriculum. UDL provides a flexible approach that can be customized for individual needs and meet students where they are. Combine that with activities that inspire students to actively engage in learning our 12 Kindness Concepts, and you've got yourself a happy classroom.
We've established that Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is objectively and measurably beneficial for kids. But what does SEL have to do with kindness? We're so glad you asked!
Our ‘Kindness in the Classroom®' program was created to integrate intentional kindness skill building instruction with the development of social and emotional competencies.
There's a lot to read about kindness here on our website. But one of the most beautiful things about kindness is the purity of its ease and simplicity. That's reflected in our Kindness Paradigm, which is what we call the simple, four-step cycle that we've based our entire program around.
Here's how it works
STEP 1 - INSPIRE
Whether its through video, role-play, books, games, or another
hands-on activity, each kindness lesson is designed to inspire
students. That way, teachers aren't just informing – they're using
their imaginations and applying their natural ingenuity.
STEP 2 - EMPOWER
Inspiration is good—but it doesn't become transformative until
students are given the tools that will let them act on that
inspiration. With that in mind, the next step is for teachers to lead
the class through discussions designed to empower students to find
ways to be kind in their daily lives.
STEP 3 - ACT
You might be able to guess what's coming next. Once students have the
ideas and the tools to act on those ideas, the next step (of course)
is help students put those ideas into action. It might be a research
project, it might be community service, it might be something else
entirely—but regardless of the form, the program will have students
bringing real, tangible kindness into the world.
STEP 4 - SHARE
At this point, students will have experienced how great it feels to
perform acts of kindness. And what does everyone want to do after
doing something cool (besides ‘do it again')? Talk about it, of
course!
Next, we ask students to reflect on what they've done through dialog, written responses or a visual product (which includes everything from illustrations to full-blown ‘walls of kindness'). This reinforces what they've learned and experienced, and makes it far more likely that they'll begin the kindness cycle again themselves.
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