Kindness Apples: Kind or Unkind Sort for SEL Curriculum

Inside: Use the kindness apples activity to teach sel curriculum in a fun, hands-on way this fall.

Once I moved out of California, my new favorite fall activity is picking apples at an orchard and eating apple cider donuts. My first time picking apples we picked far too many and I had to learn how to make apple pies.

Now with a killer apple pie recipe I make a few times every fall, I still love to pick apples because it’s a quintessential autumn activity that feels right in September.

Apples feel synonymous with Back to School and all things fall. And they go perfectly with our Back to School Kindness Pencils, our I am Kind at School Emergent Reader and our Fall Kindness Challenge.

All things that help focus on kindness and back to school and fall.

This Kindness Apples Activity is a perfect blend of fall and social emotional learning, perfect for back to school and fall.

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.

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 Apples Kind or Unkind Sort Activity.

What’s Included in the Kindness Apples Kind or Sort Activity:

24 apples with kindness or unkindness clipart in color
24 apples with kindness or unkindness clipart in black and white
Kind and Unkind sorting trees 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 Apples Activity

1. Purchase and print and laminate the cards and the Kind or Not Kind Trees. If you print them in black and white, you can color in
the cards first. We used these skin color crayons!

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 tree. 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 this season. Prewriters can dictate their answers and then draw a picture.