5 Ideas for a Random Acts of Kindness School-Wide Initiative

Imagine this: you are just one person, trying to motivate an entire school to be kind.  You’re tired of the same old lists of “101 Random Acts of Kindness for Students.”  Your teachers haven’t recovered from the dress up days from Red Ribbon Week, so you really don’t want to announce, “We’re Crazy About Kindness!  Wear Crazy Socks!”  And you think back to the Rock Painting Disaster of 2017 and realize you don’t want to organize a paint party for 400+ students.  I hear what you’re saying, “Laura and Kim, I don’t have to imagine this.  It’s my reality!”

So how do you motivate an entire school when you’re just one person?  We have 5 ideas that we hope will spread kindness throughout your school, while making you look like a hero.

1.) Any school-wide initiative starts with school-wide communication. Bear with me, as we back up a little bit and implement one of Covey’s habits and Begin with the End in Mind.  The end result of our Random Acts of Kindness initiative will be to have students achieve a certain number of Random Acts of Kindness for the month we deem Kindness Month.  (For us it will be February, but you make it when it fits your schedule).  I plan on using a kindness lesson with each class to introduce the topic of kindness.  During this lesson I will ask the classes how many random acts of kindness they believe they can accomplish.  I will then add each class’s projected total and make that the school-wide goal.  I will have some Kindness Completion Cards (they are included in this lesson, but you could use whatever works for your school) that I will give to the teacher or keep in the office.  As students complete their acts of kindness, they will fill out one of these cards.  I love this idea because the students have set their own goal.  It gives them ownership in the initiative, and isn’t “buy-in” one of the main factors needed in making a school-wide initiative successful?

2.) This ties in wonderfully with the Kindness Completion Cards from #1.  I plan on using the goal number that the school sets and making a bulletin board that says, “That’s so Random!”  I am going to make a visual so that the students can see how close we are to reaching our school-wide goal (Think “Fundraising Thermometer”).  Each day as completion cards are turned in, I will staple them to the bulletin board so that students can see that we’re celebrating what they’re accomplishing, AND my hope is that it will be contagious as they read what others are doing and then do the same.  I love this idea because the students will be able to see their progress and work on a goal together.  Isn’t that exactly the goal of a school-wide program?

3.) This idea is still related to the Kindness Completion Cards.  Can you tell I’m a believer in them?  As students turn them in you could draw a few out for a prize and maybe announce their name on the morning announcements.  If your students are anything like mine, the prize doesn’t have to be huge.  In fact, download our (FREE) Kindness Bookmarks, and feel free to laminate those and use them as prizes.  I love this idea because it encourages students to follow through on their ideas of random acts of kindness.  Plus, even though we know that they should do acts of kindness just because they’re the right thing to do, this idea does provide the possibility of a reward and recognition in order to “train” them to do random acts of kindness.  Eventually they will realize acts of kindness just feel good to do them!

4.) Speaking of doing acts of kindness. Organize some kind of benefit that all of your students can participate in.  A few years ago I announced during my classes that we would be sending toothbrushes to a remote village in Ecuador that had never been taught to brush their teeth.  I was blown away by how the students got behind that initiative (key word of the day, aiiiigghhh!!!  Peewee’s Playhouse reference, anyone?).  Parents who worked for dentists supplied me with boxes of toothbrushes, y’all!  The students were so proud as they saw the toothbrush mountain grow.  We have all participated in coat drives, canned food drives, school supply drives, etc.  Try to think beyond the typical “drives.”  What is an unmet need that your students could work on together?  I love this idea because it teaches students to see a need and fill a need.  They work as a team, and yet they also see the difference that they can make individually.

5.) Do you think your students need a reminder to be kind?  Try putting up posters.  Hanging posters up in the hallway is a great way to remind students about kindness.  I love this idea because our students all learn differently.  These serve as great visual reminders and help our kindness message sink in just a little bit more.  Plus they’re aesthetically pleasing and might spruce up the place!  (Not that your place needs any sprucing).

6.) Because every great test I ever took had a bonus question for extra points, here is a bonus idea for you… Stephanie Campas Kelkenberg from Meridian Ranch Elementary in Peyton, Colorado, does something called Gotcha rooms.  They buddy up two classrooms and they each have to do something kind for the other’s class sometime during the week.  I love this idea because I love surprises.  The thought of the students anticipating some type of surprise or even being completely caught off-guard when the surprise comes their way makes me giddy!  I also love it because this is another way to get the students to work together as a team.  

Don’t you agree that kindness is contagious?  I love seeing the ripple effect as kindness starts to spread throughout the whole school.  And guess what, my friend…  Because you’re reading this, it has started with YOU!  What a difference maker, you are!