Inside: Use this ABCs of Kindness as part of your sel curriculum and character education to ensure students have 26 ways to speak and act with kindness more often.
As an educator, I collect books.
I love picture books and chapter books and even Bob books.
Seriously, after payday I used to head to a bookstore and get the next ones on my wishlist.
Because we all know we can teach our students practically anything with a good book.
And kindness is no exception.
We can intentionally teach our kids to speak and act with kindness with books.
We use these Emergent Reader Kindness sets with our younger students and these Early Reader Kindness sets with our older students.
But we also use this ABCs of Kindness SEL Curriculum so our students can make their own interactive books about kindness.
Why teaching SEL Curriculum to students is critical
Students who do not feel safe in our classrooms and in our school will never be able to learn.
If they are being teased or bullied or isolated on the playground, they won’t feel confident to raise their hand, participate in class, and take a chance at being wrong.
Students don’t know how to deal with tricky social situations on the playground. They don’t know how to stand up for themselves or stand up to bullies. They don’t know how to deal with “mean girls” or how to include someone on the playground.
We have to teach them.
Related: 10 Ways to Teach Kindness SEL Curriculum
We hang Kindness posters up in our classrooms and hallways and maybe even have Kindness Week. But it’s not enough. We have to intentionally teach students how to be kind. How to not be a bully. How to stand up to bullies. How to be a good friend.
Sure, we could argue that these skills should be taught at home. But for so many students, these skills aren’t being taught at home. So if we don’t teach them, our students are missing a key component to learning: how to be a good person.
So as teachers, we can change this. We have the power to not only teach our students the state standards. We can also teach them how to speak and act with kindness more often. It’ll make our classrooms kinder places to be.
And it’ll make sure all of our students feel welcomed, included and safe so they come to school ready to learn those state standards.
How to use this ABCs of Kindness SEL Curriculum
1. Purchase and download the ABCs of Kindness curriculum.
2. Print the black and white version on colorful cardstock, or print the color version on white cardstock.
These can be turned into ABCs of Kindness individual books for students or hung up as posters around your classroom.
3. Go over each letter of the alphabet and give suggestions and ideas to complete each letter. Talk about kindness and give examples of kindness.
To keep the kindness conversation going you can use this Skittles Game or these 60 Kindness Discussion Starters.
You can also read kindness books like these:
ABCs of Kindness Emergent Reader
Want more kindness books? Here are our favorite kindness books.
4. Give your students a copy of the A-Z sheet so they can mark down every time they’ve shown kindness, from A to Z.
Encourage them to do one of each kindness activity and to cross them all off as they go.
Celebrate their acts of kindness with these Caught Being Kind Cards, verbal praise, or these Caught Being Kind Hole Charts as positive reinforcement.
5. You can also print out the blank version of each letter and have students draw the kindness activity they did to complete the letter.
6. Once they’ve drawn on each page and completed each letter of kindness, bind the pages into a book for each student with staples or a spiral.
Ready to Get the ABCs of Kindness for SEL?
Purchase the ABCs of Kindness on our online store.
Purchase the ABCs of Kindness on Teachers Pay Teachers
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