teaching kindness
The purpose of this page is to give you, the teacher, tools whereby you can explicitly teach kindness as a skill to your students as a preventative measure to counter bullying.
RATIONALE
We suggest you begin teaching kindness by reading a chosen story aloud to your students. From there a number of extension activities are suggested for classroom use, leading up to establishing a routine of registering the kind acts happening in your classroom. From there, the hope is that your students would be motivated to spread kindness beyond the walls of your classroom and reach other students in the school with the message of kindness by promoting a Kindness Day. This action will reinforce kindness within your group of students, while simultaneously building community among them as they work together towards a common goal.
As with any skill, teaching empathy and kindness requires repeated exposure, time, and practice in order to provide opportunity for the skill to develop. There is sufficient material on this page to be used over a number of weeks, months, or even throughout the entire school year. Take the ideas, and adapt them to your specific needs!
As with any skill, teaching empathy and kindness requires repeated exposure, time, and practice in order to provide opportunity for the skill to develop. There is sufficient material on this page to be used over a number of weeks, months, or even throughout the entire school year. Take the ideas, and adapt them to your specific needs!
read aloud
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Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud is an excellent read aloud to kickstart a consciousness of kindness in your students.
"All day long, everyone in the whole wide world walks around carrying an invisible bucket...You have a bucket...You feel very happy and good when your bucket is full, and you feel very sad and lonely when your bucket is empty..." So begins this heartwarming story whose goal is to teach children that happiness is something we get when we focus on giving it to others.
The book specifically addresses:
- words and actions that make other people feel happy
- words and actions that take other people's happiness away
- how to identify a bully
- that sharing kindness, appreciation and love is something we should practice daily
pre-reading teacher prompts
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Before reading Have You Filled a Bucket Today?, guide your students through a few questions to ignite their curiosity:
"Look at the cover of this book! The man and the boy are holding buckets. What are buckets used for?"
"Why do you think they are holding buckets?"
"It says here that this book is 'A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids.' Let's read it now to find out what buckets have to do with being happy..."
Post reading activity
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Brainstorm ideas and complete a T-chart with student's ideas of what it means to be Bucket Fillers and Bucket Dippers.
songs
Read the book again another day, and this time follow it up by showing the students the song, "Fill Your Bucket" by the Learning Station. Play it often over the course of time until they learn the lyrics and can sing it on their own! As an activity, have students come up with actions for the chorus.
This version of Eric Clapton's "Change the World" is sung by children, and perfect for children to listen to and learn!
video
Another day, have your students watch the Kindness Boomerang video. Before watching, ask students to describe what a boomerang is. After watching, have students discuss all the bucket-filling actions they say and explain why this video shows a boomerang effect. Have the students come up with a takeaway message together, and then illustrate the message in their own way. They will be sure to ask you to see this video many times, so get ready to enjoy it with them over and over again!
thank it forward - a classroom boomerang activity
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Use the following document to create a boomerang of thankfulness in your class. One student begins by completing a thankfulness certificate for another member of the class, who, along with receiving the completed thankfulness certificate, gets a blank certificate to "thank it forward" to another member of the class. Post the certificates in a special area of the class as they are completed, perhaps in the shape of a boomerang, and see how long it takes for the thankfulness to return to the original thanker.
![](http://www.weebly.com/weebly/images/file_icons/rtf.png)
thank_it_forward.doc | |
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File Type: | doc |
Here are a few creative variations on the theme:
- edit the document to be what you need it to be, for example, change it from a "thankful boomerang" to an "I like you because" boomerang
- begin more than one boomerang at the same time
- have students take certificates home to create a boomerang of kindness in their families as a homework activity and then report back on how this made them and their family members feel
bucket filling - a classroom routine
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One way of weaving kindness into the fabric of your class is to establish a bucket filling routine, where students each have their own buckets, and fill them whenever a kind act is done by or to them. A practical way of setting this up is to use a shoe pouch, and place clear plastic cups with the students' names on them inside each opening. You then make bucket filling objects, such as colourful pom-poms available for the students to fill their buckets.
Tailor the use of the buckets to your class's needs. Here are a few suggestions:
Tailor the use of the buckets to your class's needs. Here are a few suggestions:
- students put pom-poms into their buckets when a kind act is done to them and then at the end of the day they share what happened. As the stories are told, the bucket-fillers get to place pom-poms in their own buckets.
- you (the teacher!) can establish themes of kindness for certain days, or weeks depending on specific needs. For example, if you have a class that interrupts you regularly, pom-poms can only be used for students who raise their hand and wait their turn to speak.
- establish a certain number to determine when a bucket is full. Come up with a way to celebrate full buckets. You could give prizes for individual full buckets, or you could decide on a collective celebration once everyone has filled his/her bucket. For example, you could decide ahead of time that the class will do a kind act for someone/another class, or do a fun activity as a celebration of kindness.
kindness day - sharing kindness within your school
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Once you feel that you have established a culture of kindness within your classroom, it's time to share it with others! Have your students plan a Kindness Day within the primary division, or school-wide, where they will perform random acts of kindness to other students, and motivate other students to perform acts of kindness as well. The more ideas your students contribute to take ownership of this day, the better, but here are a few suggestions:
- your students create posters with what kindness means to them, and place them around the school
- your students arrive early to greet students as they walk in the door with a "Happy Kindness Day!", a smile, a flower, or a hand-made note saying "Have a nice day!" while "Change the World" plays in the background on a stereo.
- your students visit the classrooms one by one, explaining what kindness is, and deliver blank cards (that they made ahead of time) so that each student can then write a note of appreciation, thankfulness, or love to someone they care about
- your students show the Kindness Boomerang video to other classes
- your students create actions to perform while they sing one of the two songs they learned ("Fill Your Bucket" and "Change the World")
- your students draw pictures or write thank you notes for people who help them around the school (teachers, librarians, secretaries, custodial staff etc.)
- your students organize group games that require teamwork and cooperation to play with other classes at recess time
additional resources
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This Bucket Filler website promotes Have You Filled a Bucket Today? along with other similarly themed books and has free resources you will want to check out if you wish to extend the topic even further:
http://bucketfillers101.com/free-resources.php
http://bucketfillers101.com/free-resources.php
references
McCloud, Carol. (2006). Have you Filled a Bucket Today? Northville, MI: Ferne Press.
Schachter, R. (2011). Can kindness be taught? Instructor, 120 (4) 58-63.
MrChocolateMisto. (2013, August 7). Change the World – Versão Crianças (Completa original). Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbmm_4-v6sg
TheLearningStation. (2012, April 12). Fill Your Bucket – Children’s Song by The Learning Station. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaddbqEQ1NE
Reddy, Somu. (2012, December 30). Life Vest Inside Kindness Boomerang One Day Full HD. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64zcV4J4V4o
Schachter, R. (2011). Can kindness be taught? Instructor, 120 (4) 58-63.
MrChocolateMisto. (2013, August 7). Change the World – Versão Crianças (Completa original). Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbmm_4-v6sg
TheLearningStation. (2012, April 12). Fill Your Bucket – Children’s Song by The Learning Station. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaddbqEQ1NE
Reddy, Somu. (2012, December 30). Life Vest Inside Kindness Boomerang One Day Full HD. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64zcV4J4V4o