I’m always looking for ways to build a culture of kindness in my preschool classroom. This year, I found World Kindness Day. Did you know there was such a thing? I didn’t! Well, if you are like me and have been oblivious to this day, let me give you some basic facts about World Kindness Day before I move onto sharing my 9 fun world kindness day activities for your preschool classroom!

What is World Kindness Day? 

World Kindness Day is an international holiday. It was formed in 1998, and it is a holiday that promotes kindness throughout the world.

When is World Kindness Day?

It is celebrated on November 13th and is observed in many countries, including Canada, the United States, Australia, Japan, and the U.A.E.

Why Celebrate World Kindness Day?

World Kindness Day allows everyone to reflect on kindness and is devoted to large, small, and random acts of kindness.

Teaching Kindness

Before jumping into celebrating this amazing day with some World Kindness Day activities, you want to ensure your preschoolers understand what kindness is and how they can show it. Hopefully you have been working on this regularly in your classroom, but if you are stuck on ideas, you’ve come to the right place! Kindness should be at the heart of our preschool classrooms.

Helping students identify kindness is one of the most important parts of teaching it. You want your students to be able to determine when someone is being kind and when someone is being unkind. You can do this by having images of children doing kind and unkind things and sorting through them all the while discussing what they see, how they think the person might be feeling and what is the act of kindness.

On top of identifying kindness, you always want to be the facilitator of discussions, reflections, and actions for your preschoolers. Create opportunities for discussing acts of kindness you see in the classroom or read in books. Reflect on your days, what did you notice about your students when it came to being kind to themselves and others? By regularly doing so, you will begin to embed a culture of kindness in your classroom.

There are so many fun World Kindness Day activities for preschoolers, and teachers can easily incorporate them throughout many of their lessons. Here are 9 World Kindness Day activities to help your preschoolers spread kindness inside and outside the classroom. 

9 World Kindness Day Activities 

1. Read Books on Kindness

My absolute favourite thing to do is read books with my preschoolers! There are so many books that help teach, spread, and show students kindness! Get students involved by discussing how kindness is demonstrated within the book, how they can use the lesson from the book throughout their day, and how they can relate to the story. 

Some of my favorite kindness books are: 

Kindness is my Superhero By Alicia Ortego

Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler By Margery Cuyler 

The Kindness Book By Todd Parr

There are so many amazing books that teach students about kindness, so here’s a seperate blog post with my top 12!

2. Decorate & Celebrate Kindness 

World Kindness Day shouldn’t just be celebrated inside your classroom! Let others in your school celebrate too! Grab some markers, crayons, or colored pencils, and let your kiddos create posters with kindness quotes. Once completed, hang them around the classroom or school. If you want a quick print and go set of World Kindness Day coloring sheets, will these will help get students started on the right foot! 

3. Spread Kindness and Show Appreciation for Others

Your preschoolers can easily spread kindness and show appreciation to the people in their life. One fun way to show their gratitude to others is to create kindness cards and give them to their loved ones, the secretary at school, the principal, and anyone else that may need some kindness. 

4. Make and Gift Kindness Bracelets

Kindness bracelets are a simple and fun activity to help teach your preschoolers kindness. Creating bead or paper friendship bracelets with your students is so much fun! When finished, have each of them give their bracelet to an acquaintance or someone they appreciate, like a cafeteria worker or teacher’s assistant. These simple bracelets can easily brighten someone’s day! 

5. Create a Kindness Classroom Challenge

This kindness challenge is a fun way to get your students thinking about how simple acts of kindness can impact the lives of others and, in turn, bring joy to their own lives. Decide on a daily or weekly challenge and see if your students can complete the challenge. As the challenges are complete, mark them off, and once your class has finished them all, give each child an award. Some examples of kindness challenges you could include in the classroom are talking to someone new, sitting next to a different person at lunch, complimenting someone, letting someone go first, etc. Grab my Kindness Classroom Challenge pack here!

6. Sidewalk Messages

This is one of my absolute favorite World Kindness Day activities! Imagine a sidewalk full of kind messages for students, staff, and parents to see while entering the school for the day. These chalk messages could change someone’s day around. 

7. Show Kindness to our Earth

Teaching kindness is not only about being kind to each other, it can be extended to showing kindness to our Earth. Gather some garbage bags, and get your little ones to help you pick up trash around the schoolyard or take a field trip to a community park! 

8. Be Kind To Yourself

Another interesting concept to begin to introduce to our preschoolers is to be kind to themselves. What does that mean when it comes to a 4 or 5 year old? Remind them that they need to be kind to their bodies by getting exercise, going to bed early, eating fruits and vegetables and things like that. They must also be kind to their minds by taking time out, practicing mindfulness, meditation or practicing calming techniques.

9. Reflect 

Once you have completed some classroom activities during kindness week, it’s important to have kids reflect on what they have learned, the activities they participated in, and how they felt after. You can discuss and draw together and focus on these questions: what does kindness mean to you? How are you kind at home? How are you kind at school?

World Kindness Day Activities: Wrap Up

Once you have taught kindness and your preschoolers have participated in some world kindness day activities, it’s always best to continue the learning throughout the year. Kindness is not just for one day! 

Want more ideas on how to encourage more kindness and empathy in your classroom? Check out these blog posts:

???? 9 Simple But Effective Kindness Activities for Kids

???? Empathy in Preschool: Why Should I Care? 

???? 13 Books to Help Teach and Develop Empathy

????Why Empathy is Important in the Preschool Classroom