Inside: Use these Halloween kindness Role Playing Cards with kids to practice how to be kind towards others on Halloween.
While there is no one way to be kind, there are many ways to be unkind.
And nothing could be truer than during Halloween when kids are super excited, hyped up on candy, and also have limited impulse control.
Add to that they’re still learning how to share, turn take and use their manners, and during Halloween, kids can easily get labeled as rude.
While adults need to manage their expectations of children and not demand “thank you’s” for the candy transactions, we can also intentionally teach kids how to be kind and give them time and practice to role-play different ways they can share, turn take and be polite during Halloween festivities.
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 Halloween Kindness Role Playing to intentionally practice different ways to be kind during October to set our kids up for more kindness “success” during Halloween.
Halloween 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 Halloween with kindness.
And since kids already absolutely love Halloween, it’s a perfect conduit to teach other important skills: like Social Emotional Learning and kindness.
We can use the holiday and the pumpkins and the bats and witches and trick or treating to our advantage to encourage more kindness
We can use kindness resources like these:
Fall Kindness Pumpkins Craft and Write
Read this Halloween Kindness Emergent Reader that goes through all the different ways to be kind on Halloween.
Halloween Kindness Notecards to pass out to Trick or Treaters
Read Halloween Books like The Legend of Spookley the Square Pumpkin with an important message: Accepting Others!
Halloween Kindness Handprint Crafts to be donated to a local nursing home or retirement center.
And we can intentionally practice being kind in different ways with these Halloween Kindness Role Playing Cards.
How to Use these Halloween Kindness Role Playing Cards
1. Print out the Halloween 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 on Halloween (sharing, turn-taking, giving compliments, using “manner words”).
3. Read a scenario on the card such as: “You get handed a non-candy treat.” The idea on the card is to say, “Thank you for the treat!” Brainstorm other things to say since there’s never just one way to be kind. (ie: Thank you!, I love this!, This is really cool, Tattoos are the best.)
4. Invite kids who are interested to practice acting it out. After they say “Trick or Treat,” hand them a pencil or a sticker or candy and have them practice saying one of the brainstormed ways to react. Give other kids time to have a turn and try different ways to show kindness as they react.
5. Practice with other scenarios/role playing cards. Put on a mask or hat and have them practice complimenting your “costume” or act out trick or treating and let them practice letting others take a turn to knock or get the candy first.
6. As kids get more confident, invite other students to act out the scenarios and take on the roll of passing out the treat as well as receiving the treat.
7. You can also brainstorm things to NOT say that would be unkind or unintentionally rude when they get candy they don’t like or see a costume they don’t like (Ew, I hate this candy, Your costume is babyish, You don’t have any good toys left, 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.
Download the free Halloween Kindness Role Playing Cards here.
Leave a Reply