The Importance of Kindness: How to Teach Kids the Power of Small Acts

Did you know that there's a whole day set aside to celebrate kindness? November 13th is World Kindness Day, and it's the perfect opportunity to teach kids the importance of being friendly and polite to others.

One way to do this is by showing them how even small acts of kindness can make a big difference in someone's day. With these activities and worksheets, you can help kids learn about empathy and how it feels to make someone else happy.

What Is World Kindness Day?

World Kindness Day is a day set aside to celebrate the simple act of kindness. On this day, people all around the world come together to do something kind for someone else. It can be as simple as sending a card, making a donation, or just taking the time to do something nice for a friend.

The goal of World Kindness Day is to promote kindness and empathy in people of all ages. By teaching kids the importance of small acts of kindness, we can help them create a more compassionate and caring world.

Benefits of Practicing Kindness

When kids perform kind acts, they're not only doing something good for someone else, but they're also benefitting in a number of ways:

Kindness makes the world a better place. Acts of kindness can brighten up someone's day, and when enough people are kind, it can create a ripple effect that makes the world a happier place.

Kindness is contagious. When we see someone being kind, it makes us want to be kind too. Kindness breeds more kindness, and soon enough, the whole world will be filled with it!

Kindness helps us connect with others. When we do something kind for someone else, we're building a bridge between us and that person. It creates a sense of connection and intimacy that can help strengthen relationships.

Kindness builds empathy. Kids who are kind are more likely to be empathetic—that is, they can put themselves in other people's shoes and understand how they feel. This is an important quality for kids to have as they grow up, because it will help them become more compassionate individuals.

Activities to Teach Kids Kindness

One way to teach kids about the importance of kindness is to get them involved in activities that promote it. 

Have them make a kindness book. This can be a simple booklet where they write down or draw what kindness means to them, or examples of kind things they've done for others.

Challenge your kids to do a good deed each day. It can be as small as helping someone carry their groceries or picking up a piece of trash on the street.

Encourage your kids to write thank-you cards. Not only is it a nice gesture, but it also helps teach them the importance of being grateful for the kindnesses shown to them.

Play "pay it forward." This game is easy to set up: have your kids do something kind for someone, and then tell them not to reveal who the act of kindness was directed at. Let the recipient find out on their own sometime afterwards.

Teaching Kids Empathy

Now that we’ve discussed the basics of kindness and why it’s important, let’s talk about how to help kids understand empathy—and why it matters. After all, if we want our kids to develop a sense of kindness towards others, it’s important to equip them with the tools to understand how someone else might be feeling in any given situation.

One great way to teach kids empathy is through role-playing. Have your child act out different scenarios—could be happy, sad or something in between—and ask them how they think that person might feel. You can also encourage them try and put themselves in other people's shoes by talking through hypothetical situations.

But don't forget: no matter what scenarios you choose, make sure to give your child time and space to talk things through without judgment or interruption. The more comfortable they feel expressing their emotions, the better chance they have at understanding those of others.

Showing Kindness Through Art

If your kids are artistic, show them how to express their kindness through art! Create an art project together that focuses on being kind. This can be anything from drawing a picture of someone they love, writing a poem about what kindness means, or making a collage of words and pictures that signify acts of kindness.

It might even be fun to explore multimedia art in this project, such as creating a digital video or animation. Or you could make a 3D model of their own act of kindness and talk about how it impacts the world. It's also a great opportunity to teach kids about the power of storytelling, which can help spread the message even further!

You could even take the project beyond the realm of artwork and challenge your kids to create something practical — like designing packaging for donated items or drawing up ideas for helping in their community. No matter what kind of art project your family creates, teaching creativity will always lead to making positive change in others’ lives.

Worksheets to Encourage Thinking About Kindness

Worksheets are great tools to get kids thinking about kindness and how it can change their lives and the lives of those around them. Here are a few suggested worksheets that you can use to get children engaging in conversations about kindness.

- An empathy worksheet: This is an excellent way to teach kids that showing kindness starts with being empathetic towards others. Print out a worksheet with questions like: How does it feel when someone does something nice for you? How can you show someone else empathy?

- A kindness map: This is a great tool to brainstorm ideas of act of kindness you could do for family, friends, and strangers. Ask the kids to come up with as many ideas as possible, and add them to the map.

- A gratitude diary: Encourage kids to practice gratitude in their daily lives by jotting down things they’re grateful for in a diary every day. It’s a powerful way to instill positive thinking and focus on the good things in life.