Kindness Flowers: Kind or Unkind Sort for SEL Curriculum

Inside: Use these kindness flowers activities to teach sel curriculum in a fun, hands-on way this spring.

After a long winter of white, grey, and brown colors everywhere, it’s amazing when greenery and colorful flowers pop up out of the ground. It’s a sign that spring is officially on it’s way, even if it’s still chilly outside.

And whenever I’m feeling blue or glum, flowers on my table always brighten up my day.

Flowers feel synonymous with springtime so they go perfectly with our Flower Friendship Craft, Easter Kindness Countdown Chain, and our Spring Kindness Challenge. You can also connect flowers to flower science.

They’re all great ways to help focus on kindness and celebrate the beginning of spring.

This Kindness Flowers Activity is a perfect blend of spring and social emotional learning, perfect for March, April, and May.

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 Flowers Kind or Unkind Sort Activity.

kind or unkind sort pic

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

24 flowers with kindness or unkindness clipart in color
24 flowers with kindness or unkindness clipart in black and white
Kind and Unkind sorting flower pots 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 Flowers Activity

1. Purchase and print and laminate the cards and the Kind or Not Kind Flower Pots. If you print them in black and white, you can color in the cards first.

If you color them, use 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 flower pot. 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.