Even though my kids are older now, they still look forward to Halloween each year.

So we go big and decorate the house, we go big on Halloween costumes, we get ready to trick or treat and we make fun crafts like these haunted house fuse bead crafts, this ghost fuse bead craft, and these milk bottle ghosts.

Halloween is such a fun time for kids so it’s a great way to sneak in some learning. Which means it’s the perfect time to intentionally teach kindness and social emotional learning skills. There are lots of resources to teach kindness during October but one of our favorites is when we gamify it with this Halloween Kind or Unkind Sort.

Other Halloween Kindness Activities:

We have tons of Halloween-themed kindness activities that will help you teach social emotional learning.

Countdown to Halloween with this Kindness Paperchain

Encourage kindness with this positive reinforcement Kindness Pumpkin Challenge.

Get everything you need in one place to focus on kindness this Halloween with this Halloween Kindness Bundle.

Use these Halloween Kindness Role Playing Cards to practice being kind on Halloween.

Spread kindness this Halloween by making these Halloween handprint crafts and gifting some of these to a local retirement home or nursing home.

Give out candy and kindness to the trick or treaters with this Halloween Kindness notes.

Read about all the ways to be kind on Halloween with this Halloween Kindness Emergent Reader.

And we play our Halloween Kind or Unkind Sort Game.

What’s Included in the Halloween Kind or Unkind Sort Activity

• 24 ghosts with kindness or unkindness clipart in color
• 24 ghosts with kindness or unkindness clipart in black and white
• Kind and Unkind sorting haunted houses in color and black and white
• Kindness worksheet to help kids show what they know and determine what is kind and what is not kind in color and black and white
• 2 writing sheets: 1 for early writers/prewriters and 1 for writers.

How to Use this Halloween Kind or Unkind Sort

1. Purchase and download the kindness leaves activity.

2. Print the ghosts in color or black and white on cardstock.

3. If you print them in black and white, color the ghosts in.

Make sure to use skin color crayons like these so the clipart showcases diverse students.

4. Cut apart the ghosts and laminate them for durability.

5. Go over the pictures on the cards to ensure children understand what the picture depicts. You can use these as discussion starters before or after the activity.

6. The students will sort the cards by kind actions or unkind actions by placing the cards near the correct haunted house.

They can do this in small groups during centers, independently, or you can do it as a whole group in a pocket chart.

If there are too many cards, you can only give students half the cards at once, so they are more successful.

7. To follow up the activity, students can complete the Kind or Unkind worksheet to show their understanding. 

Students will cross off or circle the actions on the worksheet. If you use black and white version, students can color in the images that are kind and x off the images that are unkind.

8. To connect this sel curriculum to writing skills, students can draw a picture/write how they will choose to be kind this Halloween. If students are prewriters, they can dictate their answer and draw a picture.

Ready to Use the Halloween Kind or Unkind Sort?

Grab the Halloween Kind or Unkind Sort on Teachers Pay Teachers.

Want MORE HALLOWEEN SEL?

Get our Halloween Ultimate Kindness Bundle here.

The post Halloween Kind or Unkind Sort SEL Activity for October appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

In a classroom of 20-35 students, it’s easy for students to feel lost or feel like they aren’t valued as a member of the class.

But if we want our kids to feel heard, seen, valued, welcomed, and liked, we have to intentionally make sure they know how much we hear, see, value, welcome, and like them. 

And we know it is easy to tear someone down and make them feel less than…especially out on the playground, in the halls, and when adults are less present. Kids will start to believe the words and the critiques, criticisms, and put-downs will become their inner voice.

But we can do something about it.

We can fill them up with the positive words they need to hear to turn it around, build up their confidence and their self-esteem.

We can remind them of all the wonderful qualities they have so in the moments of self-doubt or when faced with unkindness, they can stay mentally strong.

One way we can help kids is with this SEL Writing Activity: You Light Up this Room.

Families, classrooms and scout groups can use this to build up kids’ confidence and self-esteem, while learning how to use positive adjectives to compliment others. 

Other Ways to Teach Kids How to Compliment Others

We can connect social emotional learning to any holiday, any season and any learning skill.

That’s why it’s so easy to “sneak” in social emotional learning because it can be taught at the same time as other skills like writing and using adjectives.

Here are a few ways to teach kids how to compliment others. 

We can create a Compliment Box in our classrooms where students write notes to each other, like these Compliment Cards.

We can also use these Lift You Up Balloon Notecards.

We can build them up in summer with these Compliment Suns.

In the spring, we can make these Friendship Flowers.

And in December, we can use this Christmas Light Writing Activity: You Light Up this Room to build up self-esteem and work on complimenting others.

But we can also use this lightbulb SEL Writing Activity: You Light Up This Room.

How to Use the SEL Writing Activity: You Light Up This Room

1. Download and print out the lights you wish to use: color or black and white and I light up or You light up on cardstock (download it below).

Write students’ names on the back of the lightbulb.

2. Brainstorm positive adjectives or attributes we could use to describe classmates on the board such as:

• hard worker
• fun
• funny
• kind
• friendly
• good friend
• good at ____
• creative
• helpful
• thoughtful
• generous
• athletic
• fast
• responsible
• joyful
• caring
• curious

3. Have students go around the room and use the list of words for inspiration to write one positive adjective/phrase on each classmate’s lightbulb.

Encourage them to use different phrases so the same phrase isn’t repeated over and over on the same light bulb.

4. If you write in pencil, you can trace over the words in sharpie.

5. Each student can also write one positive thing about themselves on their own light to help build their self-confidence.

6. To share the positive words, encourage students to read what their classmates wrote about them and remind students that all together, everyone helps light up the classroom and make it special.

7. Cut out the lights.

8. To display the lights, you can:

• make a garland that can be hung up on a wall or across a room.
• attach them to a bulletin board as a decoration or down the hallway.
• bind the students’ lightbulbs into a classroom book to put in your classroom.
• use them to decorate your door for spirit contests
• sse the words, “THIS CLASS SURE IS BRIGHT!” with them (and teach your kids the multiple meanings!)

Ready to get the SEL Writing Activity: You Light Up This Room?

The post SEL Writing Activity : You Light Up this Room Compliments appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

I can’t lie…living near the Pacific Ocean, I was never a fan of sharks.

I wanted to see dolphin fins when I was swimming, not shark fins.

Sharks have always gotten a bad rap- from Jaws to rare shark attacks- but they’ve made a comeback with the Baby Shark song, Bruce the Shark from Finding Nemo (“fish are friends, not food“), and the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

The mysteries of the ocean have always enthralled us since it’s the last part of Earth that hasn’t been fully explored.

And so we can lean into learning with sharks with this shark fin wreath and connect sharks to kindness with this Kind or Unkind Sorting Game, perfect as Shark Week Activities kids will love. 

Why Social Emotional Learning is Important

Social Emotional Learning is a crucial part of any classroom’s lesson plans.

Related: Why We Should Teach SEL

It teaches our students problem solving skills, critical thinking skills and positive relationship skills. It builds up their Emotional Intelligence, helps bully-proof them, and research has shown that it improves their academic success.

Related: How Teachers Can Prevent Bullying

But to make social emotional learning and character education effective, we have to make it consistent, set clear expectations from our students, intentionally teach them the skills they need to be kind, and make it fun. 

To do that we can use Kindness Books like these, our 60 Kindness Conversation Starters, and fun, hands-on sel curriculum like our Shark Week Kindness Kind or Unkind Sort Activity.

More Summer Kindness Activities:

To encourage even more summer kindness, you’ll love these activities:

Summer Ultimate SEL and Kindness Bundle

Summer Kindness Challenge

Summer Kindness Notes

Summer Kindness Bucket List

Compliment Suns

Popsicle Kind or Unkind Sort

Shark Kindness Craft and Write

And we love using this Shark Week Kindness Kind or Unkind Sort.

What’s Included in the Shark Week Activities, Kind or Unkind Sort:

• 24 shark  fins with kindness or unkindness clipart in color
• 24 shark fins with kindness or unkindness clipart in black and white
• Kind and Unkind sorting ocean in color and black and white
• Kindness worksheet to help kids show what they know and determine what is kind and what is not kind in color and black and white
• 2 writing sheets: 1 for early writers/prewriters and 1 for writers.

How to Use these Shark Week Activities:

1. Purchase and print and laminate the shark fin cards and the Kind or Not Kind Oceans.

If you print them in black and white, you can color in the cards first.

Offer kids skin color crayons so the clipart has diverse kiddos.

2. Cut apart the cards.

3. Go over the pictures on the cards to ensure children understand what the picture depicts. You can use these as discussion starters before or after the activity.

4. The students will sort the cards by kind actions or unkind actions by placing the cards near the correct ocean.

They can work in small groups in centers, independently, or as a whole group with a pocket chart.

5. To follow up the activity, students can complete the worksheet to show their understanding.

6. To connect to writing and language arts studies, draw a picture/write how they will choose to be kind. Prewriters can dictate their answers and then draw a picture.

Ready to get the Shark Week Activities Kind or Unkind Sort?

Get The Kindness Shark Week Activities Sort on Teachers Pay Teachers.

The post Shark Week Activities : Kind or Unkind Sort for Kids appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

New Year’s Eve is synonymous with resolutions, a firm decision to do or not do something that can turn into a habit (or breaking a habit). 

While many resolutions are forgotten by February, there are some that are worthy of becoming a real, lifelong change.

And while resolutions are often not kid-friendly, kids absolutely can understand setting a goal for themselves, making a plan to hit the goal, and then working hard to work towards the goal.

These Family Goals and Classroom Goals for the New Year to focus on kindness is a way to help kids create resolutions and a new habit worthy of our focus: kindness.

Instead of coming up with a resolution, you give the kids one they will all work towards: to speak and act with kindness more often with less reminders from adults.

But then they need a plan with real ideas to make kindness a reality and not just something we talk about. 

To make it more concrete and easier to make kindness goals for the new year, you can use our Family Goals and Classroom Goals for the New Year Printables.

Even More New Year’s Eve and January Kindness and SEL Resources

We create these Kindness Resolutions to set the year up with more kindness.

We use this New Year’s Kindness Challenge printable to encourage more kindness with positive reinforcement.

We use this Birthday Wish for Martin to honor and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

We can read all the ways Martin dreamt of kindness in this I Dream of Kindness Emergent Reader.

We spread kindness to others with these Winter Kindness Notes.

We read about all the ways we can be kind during the winter months with this Winter Kindness Emergent Reader. 

We can spread kindness during winter with this Winter Kindness Bucket List.

And we use the Kindness Family Goals and Classroom Goals for the New Year.

How to Use the Kindness Family Goals and Classroom Goals for the New Year:

1. Download the family goal or classroom goal sheet, whichever you need (download it below).

2. Print out the goal sheet for your whole family or one for each student.

3. Then as a group, brainstorm ways kids can be kind to each group on the sheet with real examples kids can do every day.

If they’re struggling to come up with ideas on their own, you can use these ideas:

• offer to help
• offer to do a chore
• ask if someone wants to play with you
• ask what they want to play
• offer to let someone sit next to you
• offer to share the last cookie
• bring in a neighbor’s trash can
• smile and wave to people we pass in the hallway/street
• offer to share your supplies if they need it
• cheer someone on when they do something hard
• give a compliment to someone
• hold the door for someone
• help someone do something that feels hard for them

These are all simple, normal, everyday acts of kindness that can easily become habits if we give kids enough time to practice.

Here’s to more kindness each day of this new year and more kids with a new kindness habit. 

Get the Class Goals for the New Year and Kindness here.

Get the Family Goals for the New Year and Kindness here.

The post Kindness Family Goals and Classroom Goals for the New Year appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

St. Patrick’s Day has always felt a little lucky to me ever since my baby brother was born on the holiday. And even though we’re only a wee bit Irish, we lean into the holiday and have fun with leprechauns and leprechaun “traps” and eat Lucky Charms and make St. Patrick’s Day crafts like this Leprechaun Gnome Paper Bag Craft, this stained glass clover craft, or this coffee filter shamrock.

St. Patrick’s Day is fun, no matter how you celebrate.

And in our home, we choose to celebrate with green food, green clothes and sunglasses, and a ton of kindness.

The green stuff is pretty easy. But the kindness can be a little harder. So we use this St. Patrick’s Day Kindness Challenge to encourage our kids to speak and act with kindness more often all through March.

More St. Patrick’s Day Kindness and Social Emotional Learning Activities:

Since kids absolutely love all things holidays, St. Patrick’s Day is the perfect excuse to sneak in a little learning about social emotional concepts like kindness, gratitude, and thoughtfulness.

Kindness can of course be taught year round (and should be!) but we have great St. Patrick’s Day activities themed for March to make learning a little more fun and a ton more hands-on.

We love to tell people we’re lucky they’re in our lives with these St. Patrick’s Day Kindness Notes.

We use this Shamrock Kind or Unkind Sort during St. Patrick’s Day.

And we use this Shamrock Kindness Craft and Write. 

And we also can create these Lucky Shamrock Shape Poems has a fun way to focus on why we’re so lucky and to focus on gratiude.

Why Should We Use Kindness Challenges?

We shouldn’t need to praise kids to be kind, they should just want to be kind and then do it.

Well, yes, in an ideal world. 

But when we’re intentionally teaching kids to be kind, we have to bring out the big guns and use all the tools at our disposal, including positive reinforcement. 

When kindness becomes their norm, their habit, and their gut reaction, then yes, we can wean them off the “rewards” and positive reinforcement.

Kindness is a verb. It’s something you have to do, rather than something you just talk about. 

So if we are serious about focusing on social-emotional learning and kindness, we have to teach kids how to be kind with role playing strategies and with social emotional learning curriculum and then give them ample opportunities to be kind.

We have to give them situations where they can practice being kind to classmates, siblings, teammates, friends, adults, and people in the service industry (food servers, mail carriers, trash collectors, custodians, retail staff, flight attendants, etc.)

So to make kindness consistent and more of an everyday activity, we can gameify kindness and make it a challenge (because we know most kids can’t resist trying to “win.”)

We have Monthly Kindness Challenges like this one.

We have a Simple Normal Everyday Scavenger Hunt that kids love.

We have seasonal Kindness Challenges so kids do one kind act a week: Summer Kind Kids Challenge, Fall Kind Kids Challenge, Winter Kind Kids Challenge, Spring Kind Kids Challenge.

We have 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge so kids do one kind act a day and by the time they get to the 100th day of school, they’re 100 days smarter AND 100 days kinder.

But to connect kindness to a specific month, we also have monthly kindness challenges like our St. Patrick’s Day Kindness Challenge.

How to use the St. Patrick’s Day Kindness Challenge

1. Download and print the version you wish to use: black and white to color in the shamrocks or color version and cross off the shamrocks. (download it below.) 

(P.S. Here’s the difference between shamrocks and clovers.)

2. Every time one child is kind to another child, they get to color in a shamrock or cross off a shamrock. If you’re using it for students, every time they are kind to another student they can color in or cross off a shamrock.

3. When they get to the end of the sheet, they can earn some St. Patrick’s Day treats, some “gold,” or some quality time doing a “special” activity like extra recess, extra screen time, or a trip to the library to get St. Patrick’s Day books.

4. Continue with the positive reinforcement with another kindness challenge so kindness becomes a habit, like our Easter Peeps Kindness Challenge for April.

OR… get our Year of Kindness Challenges here all in one place.

Kindness Ideas to Help Kids Easily Act and Speak with Kindness

Sometimes it can be hard for kids to come up with ideas on how to show kindness to others. But it doesn’t have to be hard when you know there are two different kinds of kindness: 

1. big, loud, showy acts of kindness, often random acts of kindness
2. simple, normal,everyday acts of kindness that can become habit if we practice them enough

Random Acts of Kindness are fun and great, especially for Random Acts of Kindness Day in February. But the much more impactful acts of kindness take no planning, no props, and no money.

Here are some kid-friendly simple, normal, everyday acts of kindness they can start doing now:

• smile at someone you don’t know
• invite someone to sit down
• greet people when you walk past them
• hold the door for the person behind you
• write someone a sweet note
• let someone else go first
• cleaning up after yourself so the next person can use the space
• help someone who is hurt
• invite someone to play the game
• return a lost item to it’s owner
• say excuse me when you need to get past or if you bump into someone
• moving your things out of the way so someone else can sit down
• throw away someone else’s trash
• share your supplies
• take turns with a game
• give a compliment
• help someone who needs it
• ask the new person to join you
• help clean up a mess you didn’t make
• give a hug or a high-five
• cheer someone when they do something hard
• get a sibling or friend a snack/water/juice when you get your own
• ask if anyone wants to split the last treat
• thank someone for helping you

Ready to spread more kindness during March and St. Patrick’s Day?

Get the St. Patrick’s Day Kindness Challenge here.

The post St. Patrick’s Day Kindness Challenge for Kids in March appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

While there is no one way to be kind, there are many ways to be unkind.

Role Playing gives children a safe space to practice new skills they’re learning that may otherwise feel overwhelming if they were not given time to practice. 

So families and classrooms can use these Kindness Role Playing to intentionally practice different ways to be kind to set our kids up for more kindness “success.”

Kindness Activities for Social Emotional Learning 

We could teach kindness as an isolated moment, but that’s not the reality. The real power of kindness is we can be kind every day, every month in our simple normal everyday interactions with others. 

We can use kindness resources like these:

Kindness Coloring Pages

Kindness Bookmarks

Kindness Notecards

Kindness Tic Tac Toe Game

Monthly Kindness Challenge

Four Seasons Kindness Ultimate Bundle

We can read these Kindness books:

And we can intentionally practice being kind in different ways with these Kindness Role Playing Cards. 

How to Use these Kindness Role Playing Cards

1.  Print out the Kindness Role Playing Cards on cardstock and cut them apart (download them below).

2. Tell the kids you are going to practice acting out ways to be kind (sharing, turn-taking, giving compliments, using “manner words”).

3. Read a scenario on the card such as: “When someone does something hard.” The idea on the card is to say, “Congrats! You did such a great job!” Brainstorm other things to say since there’s never just one way to be kind. (ie: You worked really hard on that! You are awesome! Good job!)

4. Invite kids who are interested to practice acting it out. Hand them a pretend Easter card and have them practice saying one of the brainstormed ways to react when they open their card.

5. Practice with other scenarios/role playing cards. Have them practice complimenting friends or act out how to invite others to play. They can brainstorm ways they can be helpful and how they can share or turn take.

6. As kids get more confident, invite other students to act out the scenarios and take on the role of helping others as well as receiving treats or greeting people.

7. You can also brainstorm things to NOT say that would be unkind or unintentionally rude (Ew, I hate this cupcake, forgetting to say thank you if they’re able to, ignoring someone, tearing someone down, etc.) You can act out the unkind actions and have them try it again in a kind way.

Download the free Kindness Role Playing Cards here.

The post Kindness Role Playing Cards to Practice Being Kind appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

Every November 13th is World Kindness Day. 

Around the world, communities focus on acts of kindness they can do to improve the world around them. 

Now if we are intentionally raising kind kids, every day has to be kindness day…one day a year won’t cut it. 

Just like Kindness Week Doesn’t Work as a stand-alone.

If we want kind kids, and we are kind ourselves, we need to make kindness a habit and speak and act with kindness every day.  

But…if we celebrate and honor World Kindness Day to encourage and inspire others to speak and act with kindness more often, then it’s a great day to celebrate. 

And there are tons of kid-friendly and family-friendly World Kindness Day Activities for Kids you can do this November.

World Kindness Day Activities for Kids:

1. World Kindness Day Activities: Volunteer

Finding kid-friendly ways to volunteer can be hard because most organizations want teenagers or adults. 

But here are 12 family-friendly, kid-friendly volunteering activities that you can do any time of the year. 

Here is our November Volunteering Idea for Kids that is perfect for World Kindness Day. 

Here are even more ideas for Monthly Volunteering for Families.

2. Thank Someone

Thank Essential Workers– thanking people who are important to you is a great way to show kindness and gratitude. You can thank any essential worker: medical personnel, delivery drivers, grocery workers, educators, firefighters, and garbage/recycling collectors. 

As an added bonus, put snacks and/or drinks on your porch for delivery drivers who are hard at work delivering holiday packages. 

Thank your Teacher– there’s no need to wait until Teacher Appreciation Week in May to thank our teacher. You can write a sweet note to the educators at your school on World Kindness Day. with these Thank a Teacher Notes.

3. Compliment Someone

Giving compliments is a sweet way to spread kindness to others. We can of course give verbal compliments or we can write down a quick compliment to lift up others. Print and use these Compliment Cards to make it easier.

4. Help Someone

Helping someone in a small or big way is a great way to show kindness. 

We can bring food to someone who is hungry or donate money to someone asking for it. 

But for our kids, we can also teach them to be helpers in smaller ways that don’t require money. 

Here’s a list of ways kids can be helpers any day of the year, but especially on World Kindness Day:

5. Cheer Up Someone

Cheer up someone in your life who needs a little pick me up with our Lift Up Others Balloon note cards. Maybe someone needs a little kind note or a sweet word to get them through a hard day or bad week. 

6. World Kindness Day Activities: Make a New Friend

Making a new friend is a great way to show kindness on World Kindness Day. 

Learn how to make a new friend with our Meet New Friends Role Playing.

7. Include Someone 

Including others to make sure they feel seen, heard, welcomed, and wanted is such an impactful way to be a kind person. 

Teach kids to be includers and use this Includer Bingo to encourage kids to be includers more often.

8. Give Someone a Small Gift/Note

Gifting someone a small little gift or a note is a sweet way to let them know you’re thinking of them. 

You can bake these Friendship Cookies and give them to a neighbor or your local fire station. 

9. Do a Random Act of Kindness for Someone

Random acts of kindness are fun ways for kids to spread kindness. 

You can encourage your kids to Hide a Dollar. 

Or kids may love our Hide a Toy RAK. 

Which of these World Kindness Day Activities for kids are you going to do on November 13th?

The post World Kindness Day Activities for Kids: 9 Fun Ideas appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

One of the most fun things to do when I was a kid was to search around for a nickel or a quarter to put in the gumball machines at stores and restaurants. We always anticipated what color would fall down into our hands.

And while it never tasted as good as the watermelon Hubba Bubba my grandma would buy for me at the grocery store, it was always a treat to chew bubble gum as a kid.

Kids love bubble gum because it is usually saved as a treat. And even now that my kids are older, they still think of gum as a treat.

So this Bubble Gum Kindness Activity is a perfect year-round social emotional game perfect for centers.

Why Social Emotional Learning is Important

Social Emotional Learning is a crucial part of any classroom’s lesson plans.

Related: Why We Should Teach SEL

It teaches our students problem solving skills, critical thinking skills and positive relationship skills. It builds up their Emotional Intelligence, helps bully-proof them, and research has shown that it improves their academic success.

Related: How Teachers Can Prevent Bullying

But to make social emotional learning and character education effective, we have to make it consistent, set clear expectations from our students, intentionally teach them the skills they need to be kind, and make it fun. 

To do that we can use Kindness Books like these, our 60 Kindness Conversation Starters, and fun, hands-on sel curriculum like our Kindness Bubble Gum Kind or Unkind Sort Activity.

What’s Included in the Kindness Bubble Gum Kind or Unkind Sort Activity:

• 24 gumballs with kindness or unkindness clipart in color
• 24 gumballs with kindness or unkindness clipart in black and white
• Kind and Unkind sorting gumball machines in color and black and white
• Kindness worksheet to help kids show what they know and determine what is kind and what is not kind in color and black and white
• 2 writing sheets: 1 for early writers/prewriters and 1 for writers.

How to Use the Kindness Bubble Gum Activity

1. Purchase and print and laminate the gumball cards and the Kind or Not Kind Gumball Machines. If you print them in black and white, you can color in the cards first.

Offer kids skin color crayons so the clipart has diverse kiddos.

2. Cut apart the cards

3. Go over the pictures on the cards to ensure children understand what the picture depicts. You can use these as discussion starters before or after the activity.

4. The students will sort the cards by kind actions or unkind actions by placing the cards near the correct gumball machine.

They can work in small groups in centers, independently, or as a whole group with a pocket chart.

5. To follow up the activity, students can complete the worksheet to show their understanding.

6. To connect to writing and language arts studies, draw a picture/write how they will choose to be kind. Prewriters can dictate their answers and then draw a picture.

Ready to get the Bubble Gum Kindness Kind or Unkind Sort Activity?

Get The Bubble Gum Kindness Sort on Teachers Pay Teachers 

The post Bubble Gum Kindness Sorting Game to Teach SEL appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

My kids always loved hunting for treasures at the park and in the sandbox at school.

They came home with pocketfuls of sequins and shiny rocks and pennies and beads.

And part of the fun is the hunt for something…which is why kids probably love hide and go seek and scavenger hunts and Easter egg hunts.

They get to search for the treasure. 

And whenever we can use fun things kids already love with learning, it makes everything a little more meaningful and a little more hands-on for our kids like this pirate unit study.

So we’re connecting sorting pirate treasure to social emotional learning and character education by helping kids decide what is kind and what is not with our Pirate Treasure Kindness Game.

Great Ways to Teach Social Emotional Learning (SEL):

The beauty of teaching social emotional learning and character education is that it can be taught anywhere, to any grade, for any amount of time. And it connects to any holiday, season, or “traditional” curriculum like reading and writing.

To connect social emotional learning to reading we use these Kindness Emergent Readers and this Kindness A-Z Zoo.

To connect social emotional learning to writing we can use this Kindness Journal.

And we can give kids the chance to practice being kind with this Monthly Kindness Challenge.

We use this 100 Days of Kindness or Family Kindness Calendar where we where we do an act of kindness every day.

If your kids love pirates, they may love our Pirate Treasured Friends activity to determine who is and who is not a kind friend and this Pirate Kindness Treasure Craft and Write to focus on kindness.

We also love to use our year-round kind or unkind sorts like our Kindness Cookies, our Gumball Kindness, and this Pirate Treasure Kindness Activity.

What’s Included in the Pirate Treasure Kindness Kind or Unkind Sort Activity

• 24 gems with kindness or unkindness clipart in color
• 24 gems with kindness or unkindness clipart in black and white
• Kind and Unkind sorting Treasure Chests in color and black and white
• Kindness worksheet to help kids show what they know and determine what is kind and what is not kind in color and black and white
• 2 writing sheets: 1 for early writers/prewriters and 1 for writers.

How to Use the Pirate Treasure Kindness:

1. Purchase and print the cards and the Kind or Not Kind Treasure Chests on cardstock paper.

2. If you print them in black and white, you can color in the cards first. Make sure to use skin color crayons like these to ensure the students on the coins and gems cards are diverse.

3. Cut apart the cards

4. Go over the pictures on the cards to ensure children understand what the picture depicts. You can use these as discussion starters before or after the activity.

5. The students will sort the cards by kind actions or unkind actions by placing the cards near the correct treasure chest.

They can do this during independent centers, small groups, or as a whole group in a pocket chart.

6. To follow up on the activity, students can complete the worksheet to show their understanding.

7. To connect this sel activity to writing standards, students can draw a picture and write how they will choose to be kind this season. Pre-writers can dictate their sentences.

Ready to Use the Pirate Treasure Kindness Kind or Unkind Sort Activity?

Grab the Pirate Treasure Kindness Sort on Teachers Pay Teachers. 

The post Pirate Treasure Kindness Sort Game to Teach SEL appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.

Get the Hanukkah Kindness Role Playing Cards here

The post Christmas Kindness Role Playing and Hanukkah Kindness Role Playing Cards appeared first on Coffee and Carpool: Intentionally Raising Kind Kids.