Inside: Help your kids spread kindness to their classmates with these back to school crafts kindness pencil toppers they can gift or surprise classmates with.
We have 5 days until we start again.
Back to school is upon us and my three kids are a mix of emotions.
One is super excited.
The other one is partially excited, but mostly nervous.
And the third is only excited because he gets to see his friends.
But excited or not, back to school is here.
And in our family, we have lots of back to school traditions.
We always make a countdown paperchain calendar so we can visually see how many days are left until school.
The Back to School Fairies always come to help us.
And my husband sings a very old song about reading and writing and ‘rithmetic as loudly as he possibly can, as my kids groan and moan and suppress their giggles.
And we start the year by putting a family photo into their school supply box.
But this year we’re starting a new back to school tradition because it also helps spread kindness to my kids’ classmates at the same time.
Why We’re Spreading Kindness
We are intentionally raising our kids to be kind because kindness matters.
Being a kind person is essential to being the best versions of ourselves.
Raising kind kids is so important to us, we’ve made it one of our only two family rules.
But we can’t simply cross our fingers and hope our kids become kind.
We have to on purpose, make our kids kind by being relentlessly consistent.
So we talk to our kids about kindness with these 60 Kindness Discussion Starters.
We read books about kindness, being a good friend, and bully prevention.
We model kindness with our simple, normal everyday acts of kindness.
And we praise kindness when we see it with our Kindness Hole charts.
But more importantly, because kindness is an active skill, we set our kids up to act with kindness.
We help them perform Random Acts of Kindness when we go to the park.
And we can challenge them with 100 Acts of Kindness and encourage them to volunteer with us in kid-friendly ways.
But we can also help them share their kindness with their classmates by making these Kindness Pencil Toppers.
Why kindness at school is important
School can be a hard adjustment for a lot of kids.
Being the new kid at school is super tricky.
And sadly, many kids are targeted by bullies or mean girls who are socially “in charge” of the playground.
It can be lonely, uncomfortable, and upsetting when you face that all alone.
When you think no one likes you or you don’t have any friends.
So to combat the unkindness and anxiety many kids face, I teach my kids to not just be friendly, but to be includers.
Because when we stop and welcome others in, invite them to sit with the group, or join the game, it is the highest form of kindness. Our kids can become the welcome committee.
Related: How to teach your kids to be includers
But it can be hard for our kids to remember to be kind when I’m not there to remind them so I send them these kindness lunchbox notes every day.
We can also read this freebie: I am Kind at School
And we are going to start making these pencil toppers they can gift to their classmates or can hide in their desks or backpacks as a random act of kindness surprise.
How to make the Kindness Pencil Toppers
1. Download the kindness pencil toppers (download below).
2. Print them out on labels.
3. Your kids can color or decorate the labels however they want.
4. They can sign their name to it if they don’t want it to be a random act of kindness.
5. Once the label is decorated, lay the pencil in the middle of the label.
6. Then wrap the sticky side around the pencil so the corners match and stick to one another, making sure the label is stuck to the pencil too.
7. Then send the pencils to school with your kids and have them hide the pencils in classmates’ desks, pencil boxes, or backpacks.
8. Remind your kids to not just gift them to their close friends but to also give them to new kids, kids they don’t know well, and kids they don’t normally play with.
Because it’s fun to give kindness gifts to our friends.
But that’s pretty easy.
The extra awesome thing to do is to be kind to someone who needs the kindness…
Because some days at school are tougher than others for their classmates.
A little gift or kind word or invite to play can make all the difference in the world.
In fact, it can change their whole world.
One kid at a time.
One kindness pencil topper at a time.
Download the Kindness Pencil Toppers here.
Airbnb Anaheim says
Awesome article.