Promoting Kindness at Valentine’s Day

We are definitely getting stir crazy around here with all of the snow, which tends to bring out the not so pleasant in my little sweeties. I am sure many, if not all of you, can agree at one time or another. 

When I was creating my craft for Valentine’s Day I started thinking about what I wanted students to get out of it. Valentine’s Day is the holiday of love. We should always show love and kindness to one another, not just on Valentine’s Day, but what a great week/day to actually make it known in the classroom. This got my wheels turning and that is when my Valentine’s craft/idea was born.

This pack can serve many purposes in the classroom. Not only is it a cute little Kangaroo craft, but you can also use it to help promote kindness in the classroom. Students can work to compile the craft and then throughout the week you can have them write random kindness notes to each other and fill their kangaroo pouches with notes. Then at the end of the week, during your Valentine’s parties you can have students read the notes from their classmates. 

In addition to having students write notes of kindness, you can hold discussions about being bucket fillers instead of bucket dippers. Create class anchor charts to show ways you can be both and stress the importance of being a bucket filler. Even if you have already done this during the year, it never hurts to go back and remake the charts. You may never know what your students will come up with now that they have been with their classmates and you as a teacher.

This is also a great time to have a class discussion about bullying. I know a lot of schools have an anti-bullying type of program in place and require teachers to hold weekly/monthly meetings in their classroom to discuss what bullying looks like and what you should do if you are faced with bullying.

You can find my Bucket Filler Pinterest board HERE. It doesn’t have much on it, but I plan to add to it as I find things. 

You can check out this little craft (which can be customized for a boy (bowtie) or girl (hair bow)) by clicking on any of the pictures below or by clicking HERE. It includes all the pieces to create the craft, directions for use in the classroom, a Valentine’s Word Search, and an Acts of Kindness brainstorm worksheet. If you use it, I would love to hear how you used it in your classroom.

Girl with hairbow

Boy with bowtie