Inside: Use these Christmas Kindness Role Playing Cards with kids to practice how to be kind towards others around Christmas.
While there is no one way to be kind, there are many ways to be unkind.
And when kids are around family they haven’t seen in a while or are expected to sit still through a long, formal dinner with food they’re not used to eating, or don’t react to a gift in an expected way, they can quickly get labeled as rude.
So to prepare our kids for Christmas, we can intentionally teach them ways to be kind and polite during December and give them time to practice these new skills.
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 Christmas Kindness Role Playing to intentionally practice different ways to be kind during December to set our kids up for more kindness “success” during the Christmas season.
Christmas 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.
So the best way to teach kindness is alongside other lessons and holidays: reading with kindness, writing with kindness, and Christmas with kindness.
And since kids already absolutely love Christmas, it’s a perfect conduit to teach other important skills: like Social Emotional Learning and kindness.
We can use the holiday and the trees and the gifts to our advantage to encourage more kindness.
And we can use Christmas and winter-themed kindness resources like these:
Winter kindness Notes to pass out to friends and neighbors
Winter Ultimate kindness Bundle
You can read a Christmas Kindness Book like
Two Lists for Christmas: The Christmas Kindness-List
Secret Santas And The Twelve Days of Christmas Giving
Winter Kindness Gingerbread Craft and Write
Gingerbread kindness Cookies Emergent Reader Set
Christmas Kind or Unkind Sort Freebie
Countdown to Christmas kindness Advent Calendar
indness Countdown to Winter Break
Random Acts of kindness Christmas Activities
Read this Christmas Kindness Emergent Reader that goes through all the different ways to be kind on Christmas.
Or you can read this Emergent Reader: We All Celebrate Differently
And we can intentionally practice being kind in different ways with these Christmas Kindness Role Playing Cards.
How to Use these Christmas Kindness Role Playing Cards
1. Print out the Christmas 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 during Christmas (sharing, turn-taking, giving compliments, using manners).
If you have older kids or kids who do not want to act it out, you can also use these as discussion starters to brainstorm ways to respond.
3. Read a scenario on the card such as: “When you see someone’s Christmas tree.” The idea on the card is to say, “Your tree is so pretty!” Brainstorm other things to say since there’s never just one way to be kind. (ie: I love your ornaments, Your tree is so tall, I love your tree!)
4. Invite kids who are interested to practice acting it out. Hand them a pretend present and have them practice saying one of the brainstormed ways to react when they open a gift.
5. Practice with other scenarios/role playing cards. Have them practice complimenting decorations or act out how to greet family members and let them practice asking for the gifts they want in a polite way. They can brainstorm ways they can be helpful before, during and after Christmas.
6. As kids get more confident, invite other students to act out the scenarios and take on the roll of passing out the pretend gifts as well as receiving the gifts or greeting people they see in public.
7. You can also brainstorm things to NOT say that would be unkind or unintentionally rude on Christmas (Ew, I hate this dinner, I don’t like this gift, These cookies are disgusting, Why didn’t I get everything on my list?, Forgetting to say thank you if they’re able to, etc.) You can act out the unkind actions and have them try it again in a kind way.
Want a Hanukkah kindness role playing cards version? Click here to get that!
Download the free Christmas Kindness Role Playing Cards here.
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