August 20, 2026
6 Ways to Start the School Year With Kindness
As you’re getting ready for the year ahead, we want to encourage you to add one more thing to your back-to-school list: kindness.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Here are 6 simple ways to help make kindness part of your school community.
Become a Distinguished Kindness School
In today’s world, cultivating a culture of kindness within our school communities is more important than ever. A Distinguished Kindness School is more than a place where students learn academic skills—it’s a space where compassion, respect, and empathy thrive.
Becoming a Distinguished Kindness School and/or Class is easy:
- Download the Distinguished Kindness School checklist.
- Complete the items on the checklist.
- Email your completed checklist to info@randomactsofkindness.org to receive your Distinguished Kindness School Certificate.
Download Our Kindness Calendar
Sometimes, all you need is a simple idea to get kindness going.
Our Kindness Calendar is an easy way to bring kindness into your classroom or school, with small, everyday actions and opportunities for meaningful connection. Each day offers an idea for practicing kindness.
Print it, download it, or use it as inspiration for your own kindness ideas.
Join Our Annual Kindness Calendar Community Art Project
We love seeing kindness come to life through creativity, and we’d love for your community to be part of it!
Invite your students to create something that represents what kindness means to them. You never know—you might see their artwork helping spread kindness all year long!
Choose one of our monthly kindness themes and create an original drawing that captures its spirit.
Check Out Our New Kindness Bookmark Video & Make Your Own
A simple bookmark can become a thoughtful way to let someone know they matter.
Students can decorate their bookmarks with kind words, drawings, or messages, then leave them as a surprise for someone to find or tuck them into a favorite book as a little reminder to choose kindness.
Watch our step-by-step video and/or follow along with the printed RAKtivity to make your own kindness bookmarks.
Request a Free Kindness Poster
Put kindness where everyone can see it!
Request a free Make Kindness the Norm poster to display in your classroom, hallway, library, staff room, or any other shared space. It’s a simple way to make your school’s commitment to kindness visible every day.
Free posters are available within the continental United States.
Discover Our Other RAKtivities
Looking for more ways to bring kindness to life? Explore our library of RAKtivities (Random Acts of Kindness Activities) filled with simple, creative activities that make it easy to practice kindness together.
Use a RAKtivity as a classroom community-builder, an activity for the first week of school, or make RAKtivities a regular part of your school year.
Kindness doesn’t have to be complicated, but it should definitely be fun!
New School Year. New Connections. More Kindness.
The start of a new school year gives us an opportunity to think about the kind of community we want to create.
So while you’re checking off your back-to-school list, make sure kindness is on it, too.
Let’s make kindness the norm this school year!
