Kindness Bunnies: Kind or Unkind Sort for SEL Curriculum

Inside: Use this kindness bunnies hands-on activity to help students decide what is kind and what is not kind in this sel curriculum sort.

Easter time has always brought a lot of candy to our home…we kind of live for the Easter egg hunt and finding all the goodies the bunny brings. My son usually has a mouth full of jelly bellies as he hunts for more eggs.

But for me, marshmallow peeps have always been a favorite. When I see the bright colorful, sugary birds and bunnies in the stores, that always means spring and Easter are around the corner.

The cheerful little candies are a hint that spring is in the air and warmer weather is around the corner…even if you have to find Easter eggs in the snow.

So whenever we can connect fun things like bunnies with learning, it makes everything a little more fun and a little more hands-on for our kids.

We’re connecting Easter Peeps bunnies to social emotional learning and character education by helping kids decide what is kind and what is not with our Kindness Bunnies Kind or Unkind Sort.

Great Ways to Teach SEL in the Spring:

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.

So while you can teach kindness at any time of the year, spring is a great time to dig in as our kids head for more outdoor recess time and playing with friends.

To connect social emotional learning to spring we use things like our Countdown to Spring Break Kindness Paper Chain and our Easter Kindness Paper Chain and our Easter Kindness Notes.

We also use this Spring Kindness Challenge where we do a spring-themed act of kindness every week, all throughout March and April and May.

We also love to use our spring-themed kind or unkind sorts like our Kindness Kites, our Kindness Raindrops, and this Kindness Bunnies Activity.

How to Use the Kindness Bunnies:

1. Purchase and print the cards and the Kind or Not Kind Easter Baskets 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 bunny 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 Easter basket.

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.