Kindness Word Search to Help Teach SEL Vocabulary

Inside: Use this kindness word search to help teach kindness vocabulary and as a supplement to your sel curriculum and character education.

When I was a kid, I loved word searches and Hidden Picture Puzzles in Highlights Magazine.

Maybe it was because it was a break for my brain from having to think too much and a stretch for the other part of my brain that wasn’t so great at puzzles and spatial reasoning.

But whenever I found what I was hunting for, I took great satisfaction in circling it and then crossing off the word from the word bank below.

And word searches are a great add-on resource to teach any subject. So if we’re teaching our students to intentionally be kind through sel curriculum and character education, these kindness-themed word searches will help your students.

As a stand-alone activity, they’re not enough to teach kindness, just like a word search on the solar system would never really teach our students about the solar system and its planets.

However, these kindness word searches can be used as a fun extension activity to reinforce what we’re learning in a fun way that improves our spatial reasoning skills and reaches students who otherwise would have lost attention if we only relying on lectures and worksheets to teach our subject.

Why Knowing Kindness Vocabulary is Important

If we want our kids to be kind, we have to set very clear expectations so they know what we want from them.

Educators: The Only Two Classroom Rules You’ll Need

Parents: The Only Two Family Rules You’ll Need

When it comes to kindness, we can’t just say, “Be Kind.” Instead, we have to teach them what kindness is, and what it is not.

We also have to show them all the different ways to speak and act with kindness and what kindness encompasses:

compassion
friendly
good friend
includer
upstander
thoughtful
helpful
gratitude
manners

And we have to use vocabulary strategies so students understand what the words truly mean. This is especially important since a clear understanding of the words and concepts will guide them to speak and act in a certain and very specific way.

Our goal for our kids is to speak and act with kindness more often, with less reminders from us. That only happens when they have a very clear understanding of how to speak and how to act and how not to speak and how not to act.

Fun Ways to Teach and Reinforce SEL Curriculum

When we make social-emotional learning fun, our students and kids want to participate.

When they want to participate, it becomes more ingrained in their everyday knowledge and will become a habit.

Tic Tac Toe Kindness

Fidget Spinner Kindness

Kind or Trash Game

Includer Bingo

Manners Bingo

And we can use these Kindness Word Searches.

How to Use This Kindness Word Search

1. Download and print the version you need since there’s an older student and younger student version (download them below).

2. Offer the word search to students when they finish their work early, as an extension of a sel vocabulary lesson, for rainy day/indoor recess activities, for Fun Fridays, or as a boredom buster.

Students can complete these independently, in small groups during centers, or even as a whole group as you’re teaching the vocabulary.

3. Review the words on the kindness word search so kids know what each word means and encourage students to find each word.

You can use our Kindness Vocabulary or Kindness Dictionary to help teach the nuances of these words so students really understand and attach meaning to these words.

Because finding the words and circling them is fine. But unless our kids have a clear understanding of what the words mean, this is just a low-meaning activity that could do so much more to support our students’ social and emotional learning.