Mango Class Acts of Kindness Work
Class teacher Kate Butler partnered with Minna from Rastaala to work on Acts of Kindness with Y2 children in mango class. They worked on a series of activities to encourage the children to think about the feelings of others, as well as to identify and better understand their own emotions.
The story of the Giving Tree was read to the class as a stimulus. Children drew images following the story which resulted in conversations about feelings and actions. Some children wrote about what they would give ‘the giving tree’ to make it feel happy again. Children decided that they would like to make their own ‘giving tree’. Each child thought about ways they could make people in the classroom, on the playground, at home and in the community happy. These were written on leaves and placed on the class giving tree. The tree is accessible for all pupils and anyone can write their own messages of kindness to add to the tree. Messages written in both English and Finnish. Rastaala also had a giving tree in their school.
The story of the Giving Tree was read to the class as a stimulus. Children drew images following the story which resulted in conversations about feelings and actions. Some children wrote about what they would give ‘the giving tree’ to make it feel happy again. Children decided that they would like to make their own ‘giving tree’. Each child thought about ways they could make people in the classroom, on the playground, at home and in the community happy. These were written on leaves and placed on the class giving tree. The tree is accessible for all pupils and anyone can write their own messages of kindness to add to the tree. Messages written in both English and Finnish. Rastaala also had a giving tree in their school.
The children identified that they felt good when someone surprised them unexpectedly. We read the story ‘Only One You’ by Linda Kranz. This inspired the children to design and decorate their own kindness rocks. The kindness rocks were then hidden around school for others to find. If someone found a kindness rock it was theirs to keep.
Mango class also engaged in a variety of other PSHE activities throughout the week including Kindness Drama, the Kindness Jar and the Kindness Dinosaur. The children had the opportunity to pick out a kindness idea from a box. In a group, they had to decide how they would display this acts of kindness for the class. Some children chose freeze frames whilst others acted out. The rest of the class would have to guess what kind action this was.
At the end of each day children had the opportunity to note down things they had been thankful for or anything positive they had noticed. The notes were kept in a jar and shared at the end of the week.
Every day the kindness dinosaur left one idea on the desk of something kind that could be done in the school day e.g. play with someone different today.
The children then had to display this in their actions and at the end of the day there was a quick sharing of what had happened.
At the end of each day children had the opportunity to note down things they had been thankful for or anything positive they had noticed. The notes were kept in a jar and shared at the end of the week.
Every day the kindness dinosaur left one idea on the desk of something kind that could be done in the school day e.g. play with someone different today.
The children then had to display this in their actions and at the end of the day there was a quick sharing of what had happened.