According to Piaget's theories, children between the ages of 2 and 6 experience and interact with their environment through a preoperational stage. During this developmental phase, children tend to have egocentric thoughts, and they find it difficult to understand how their actions can affect others. Despite these challenges, it is possible to familiarize children with the concept of kindness from a young age. In this lesson plan, educators can introduce the positive effects of kind actions to children between the ages of 4 and 6 and practice these concepts using real-life scenarios.
Goals
Students will learn about kindness and understand its importance in creating positive connections with others.
Students will explore practical ways to show kindness to themselves and their peers.
Resources
A ball
Starter/Warm-up (5 minutes)
To begin the lesson, share with the students a recent personal experience of kindness, such as helping someone, sharing, or expressing gratitude. Once you've done this, introduce the term "Kindness" by using a visual aid and ask students if they are familiar with this word and its meaning.
Main activities (20 minutes)
Present the video "Color Your World with Kindness." Encourage the students to actively observe and identify various acts of kindness depicted in the video. After watching the video, please initiate a discussion by asking the students to share what they observed. Highlight the positive outcomes that occur when someone shows kindness to another person.
Encourage students to use kind words in various scenarios, such as sharing toys, bumping into someone, receiving gifts, or being thanked by a teacher. Prompt them with "What do you say when...?" Furthermore, you can practice giving compliments using a ball. When a student catches the ball, they share a kind statement with the person who tossed it.
One way to reinforce the concept of kindness among students is by providing them with worksheets to color, and prompting them to draw themselves engaging in acts of kindness. Once completed, students can proudly display their artwork by posting it in various areas throughout the classroom.
Closure (5 minutes)
Ask each student to share one act of kindness they learned or experienced during the lesson. Remind them how kindness can have a positive impact on themselves and others. Conclude by making a collective commitment to continue practicing kindness, not only at school but also at home and in other contexts.
Follow-up activities
Organize a class or school-wide kindness challenge. Provide a list of diverse and achievable acts of kindness for students to complete over the next week. Examples could include writing a kind note to a friend, helping a teacher with a task, or complimenting someone. Celebrate and discuss the experiences during a follow-up class. You can find a template for this activity here.
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