Turkey Kindness Challenge to Encourage More Kindness

Inside: Use this Turkey Kindness Challenge to encourage more kindness and give kids many chances to practice kindness this November.

Thanksgiving has got to be my least favorite holiday… me, I’m just counting down the minutes until I can decorate for the December holidays.

But, November is the perfect time to focus on gratitude and kindness; and we can use the holiday themes kids love like turkeys and pumpkins to help kids understand hard topics and change their behaviors.

If we want our kids to speak and act with kindness more often, we have to offer positive reinforcement to kids who need help making kindness a habit.

And while we want kids to be kind without the reward, it’s often just what some kids need to really help them understand how easy it can be to show kindness to others.

One easy way to do this easily is to use one of our many kindness challenges… this Thanksgiving kindness challenge and the cute turkey is perfect for November to get your kids super clear on your expectations for kindness. You can wean them off the “rewards” later.

More Fall Kindness and Social Emotional Learning Activities:

Kindness can of course be taught without cutesy themes, but using seasons, holidays and things kids already enjoy- like fall and Thanksgiving- can increase the buy-in and pique their interest. It’ll make learning a little more fun and a ton more hands-on.

We like to play this Turkey Kind or Unkind Sort Game.

We connect kindness with writing with this Leaves Kindness Craft and Write Activity.

We read about all the ways to be kind during fall with this I am Kind in Fall Emergent Reader.

And this Thanksgiving Kindness Emergent Reader to focus on all the ways to be kind and helpful during Thanksgiving.

We use these Thanksgiving Kindness Role Playing cards to practice all the ways to be kind during November and Thanksgiving.

We can spread kindness and gratitude with these Gratitude Kindness Notes.

We can also focus on gratitude by writing a few things we’re grateful for each day in November on our Gratitude Pumpkin. It will look gorgeous on your Thanksgiving table too.

We also use this Fall Kindness Bucket List to encourage more kindness.

We pass out these Fall Kindness Note cards.

We count down to Thanksgiving Break with an act of kindness every day leading up to turkey with this Thanksgiving Break Kindness Paper Chain Countdown Calendar.

And we use this Turkey Kindness Challenge.

Why Should We Use Kindness Challenges?

We shouldn’t need to praise kids to be kind, they should just want to be kind and then do it.

Well, yes, in an ideal world.

But when we’re intentionally teaching kids to be kind, we have to bring out the big guns and use all the tools at our disposal, including positive reinforcement.

When kindness becomes their norm, their habit, and their gut reaction, then yes, we can wean them off the “rewards” and positive reinforcement.

Kindness is a verb. It’s something you have to do, rather than something you just talk about.

So if we are serious about focusing on social-emotional learning and kindness, we have to teach kids how to be kind with role playing strategies and with social emotional learning curriculum and then give them ample opportunities to be kind.

We have to give them situations where they can practice being kind to classmates, siblings, teammates, friends, adults, and people in the service industry (food servers, mail carriers, trash collectors, custodians, retail staff, flight attendants, etc.)

So to make kindness consistent and more of an everyday activity, we can gameify kindness and make it a challenge (because we know most kids can’t resist trying to “win.”)

We have Monthly Kindness Challenges like this one.

We have a Simple Normal Everyday Scavenger Hunt that kids love.

We have seasonal Kindness Challenges so kids do one kind act a week: Summer Kind Kids Challenge, Fall Kind Kids Challenge, Winter Kind Kids Challenge, Spring Kind Kids Challenge.

We have 100 Acts of Kindness Challenge so kids do one kind act a day and by the time they get to the 100th day of school, they’re 100 days smarter AND 100 days kinder.

But to connect kindness to fun things kids already love, we also have monthly kindness challenges like our Thanksgiving Kindness Challenge.

How to use the Thanksgiving Kindness Challenge

1. Download and print the version you wish to use: black and white to color in the turkey or color version and cross off the turkey feathers. (download it below.)

2. Every time one child is kind to another child, they get to color in a turkey feather or cross off a turkey feather. If you’re using it for students, every time they are kind to another student they can color in or cross off a turkey feather.

3. When they get to the end of the sheet, they can earn a Thanksgiving treat or a Thanksgiving kindness book.

4. Continue with the positive reinforcement with another kindness challenge so kindness becomes a habit, like our Christmas kindness challenge.

OR… get our Year of Kindness Challenges here all in one place.

Kindness Ideas to Help Kids Easily Act and Speak with Kindness

Sometimes it can be hard for kids to come up with ideas on how to show kindness to others. But it doesn’t have to be hard when you know there are two different kinds of kindness:

big, loud, showy acts of kindness, often random acts of kindness
simple, normal, everyday acts of kindness that can become habit if we practice them enough

Random Acts of Kindness are fun and great, especially for Random Acts of Kindness Day in February. But the much more impactful acts of kindness take no planning, no props, and no money.