This Fall Kindness Challenge is a fun and simple way to encourage our kids to spread kindness this fall. There are 4 activities for September, October, and November.
I met my daughter and her friend after school today.
I was waiting in my car near the crosswalk a few blocks from school and my windows were down.
The girls were crossing the street, assisted by the sweetest crossing guard.
She is there every day, rain or shine, every morning and every afternoon.
As she helped my tween and her friend cross the street, I heard her say, “You’re so welcome and you ladies have a good weekend, too.”
And my heart melted.
Because if she said that to the girls, they must have said “Thank you and have a good weekend” to her.
And they did it without a reminder or prompts from an adult.
They did it when most of their peers ignore her as they laugh or listen to music or chat with others.
Which means our kindness discussions and kindness challenges are working.
Kind words and actions are becoming more of a habit, more of a normal, everyday behavior.
They paused their conversation to greet her, thank her and wish her well.
Want to encourage your kids to showcase more kindness more often?
Use this easy FallKindness Challenge.
Why should we have a kindness challenge?
We are raising our kids to be kind.
But we can’t just cross our fingers and hope it happens.
We have to intentionally make it happen.
We talk about kindness, model kindness and praise kindness.
Related: 60 Kindness Discussion Starters
We remind them to speak and act with kindness by making it one of our only two family rules.
We can volunteer with them to show them how easy it is to give.
In our family, we encourage both big and small acts of kindness.
We brought Kindness Elves into our home to inspire more acts of kindness.
We read books about kindness like these:
And we play Tic Tac Toe Kindness and Fidget Spinner Kindness.
But each season, we also do a Kindness Challenge like this Summer Kindness Challenge.
So now that it’s fall, we’re changing it up to kindness activities perfect for September, October and November.
Fall Kindness Challenge
Every month, we challenge our kids to do 4 kind things for others as they spread kindness to:
- Siblings
- Parents
- Classmates
- Teammates
- Friends
- Teachers
- Neighbors
- Community helpers
For fall, you can print out this Challenge Checklist to post on your fridge as a reminder and as a challenge to complete it all by the end of fall. You can download it below.
Kindness Activities for September:
- Reach out to your crossing guard and learn their name and then say “hi“
- Invite a new student at school to sit with you.
Related: Help your kids learn to be an includer
- Bake or buy cookies and take them to your local fire department to honor and remember September 11th (if your kids are young, you don’t need to explain why you’re delivering cookies).
- Cheer on a classmate or teammate when they cross the monkey bars for the first time or score their first goal or answer a tricky question.
Related: How to Help your Kids Be a Good Teammate
BONUS Activity: Make Kindness Pencil Toppers
Kindness Activities for October:
- Join the Teal Pumpkin Project
- Offer a compliment to a classmate or a teacher or a sibling or a parent
- Take goodies to a local nursing home and “reverse trick or treat”
- Help a neighbor rake their leaves or bring in their trashcans
BONUS Activity: Spread Kindness on Halloween to trick or treaters with these Halloween Kindness Notes
Kindness Activities for November:
- Gather warm clothes or coats that no longer fit and donate them so someone else can benefit
- Tell your family you’re grateful for them with Gratitude Kindness Notes
- Make a fleece blanket and donate it to a local animal shelter so the dogs have something to cozy up to this fall
- Invite your sibling to play with you (or challenge your kids to see how many times they can invite their sibling to play during the whole month)
Related: Encourage Sibling Connections and Kindness with this Ice Cream Kindness Challenge
BONUS Activity: Write a gratitude letter to veterans
Then, when they’re done with each months’ challenges, encourage your kids to focus on our next seasonal challenge: our Winter Kindness Challenge.
Download the Fall Printable Checklist here!
Michelle McCabe says
I love these! But is there a link to print them out or save them for the Sept Oct and Nov kindness challenges? I can’t seem to find it!
Nicole Black says
I didn’t have a printable version but just made it! You can download it at the bottom of the post!