Character Lesson for Mondays - KINDNESS


Hello readers and thank you for stopping by my blog Be The Difference. I am a children’s book author and mother to three young children. I am dedicated to spreading the important messages in my books to children around the world. I strive to make a difference in my own home by spending time teaching my children character traits using age appropriate activities and quality children’s literature. I am sharing these lessons with you, week-by-week so that you can do the same. Let’s provide our children with tools they can use when they go out into the world and face difficult situations. Let’s give them a chance to grow up to be Problem Solvers! I would love to connect with you and continue this conversation—please see links at the bottom of this post— Maria Dismondy


What is Kindness?

Kindness is an important quality to have. When someone is kind, it means he or she is considerate and nice to others. Some good examples of kindness are saying please and thank you, sharing, and doing anything that helps others. When you treat other people with kindness, both people feel good!

What is an Act of Kindness?

An act of kindness is a spontaneous gesture of goodwill towards someone or something – our fellow humans, the animal kingdom, and the kingdom of nature. Kind words and deeds come from a state of benevolence, generated by a core response deep within all of us. When we carry out an act of kindness it is a message from one heart to another, an act of love, an unspoken “I care” statement.

From www.whyzz.com, www.kindness.com.au


Book I am using with this lesson:

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson


How I used this book to teach the trait Kindness

We read this book and talked about empathy—how the two main characters must have felt in the story. We also talked about being a problem solver and how we could have taken action to fix the problem and try to make things better.

Book: Read or listen to the book with your child.

Discuss: This book brings up discussions on: empathy, kindness, regret, problem solving, conversations, judgement and love.

Craft:

Print and color this BEAUTIFUL kindness print and give to someone special!

Activity:

Make pet clouds to pass out to family and friends who need a reminder that they are special, unique and LOVED!


Product I’ve created to go along with this lesson:

A month long FREE Kindness Calendar!!! Print this calendar for your fridge at home or for your classroom. Try and complete a kind act each day for 30 days. Make it a part of your family routine so that kindness will stick around for good!


Video to teach kindness- I’m Here

Music to inspire and teach this trait:   Have I Done Any Good In the World Today?


To find out more about how you can teach character to your students or children:

https://www.pinterest.com/mariadismondy/character-development/

Learn more about the #TakingCareThurs initiative here: http://journaloflaura.weebly.com/what-is-takingcarethurs.html

Continue this conversation on character by joining our Private Facebook Group here https://mariadismondy.com/resources/

Visit my TeachersPayTeacher Store to see products to help support character education: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Be-The-Difference