Kindness and Compassion in Action

What if one small action had the power to change a bad day into a good day?

Every kid knows that moment of panic when something goes wrong. Maybe you forgot to bring something important to school or you were excluded from a group. Or maybe you made a big mistake that you can’t undo. Just as you feel like your world is about to implode, somehow it doesn’t. It’s not a superhero that saves the day, but another kid who has the power to be kind. Sometimes one thoughtful action will turn a bad day into a good day.

Kindness & Compassion in Action is a collection of vignettes that follow the adventures of students who discover the power of kindness to transform someone’s day.

Each vignette presents a different situation that is a common occurrence at elementary schools. Examples include: Marina who needs help keeping her messy desk clean; Renard who loses a student council election and needs encouragement; and Garam, who really wants to play foursquare, but doesn’t know the rules.

Each story is followed by a set of discussion questions that can be used to guide student conversations about kindness. If time allows after the discussion questions, ask students to share examples of a time when they demonstrated the same kind of kindness as in the story. Each section ends with a “Remember” statement designed for student reflection.

Includes printable pages of each story that can be distributed to students.