Education | Classroom Activities | Kindness | Social and Emotional Learning
Have you considered the power of positive affirmationsto build self-esteem or kindness activities for classroom management?
These inspiring DIY kindness bulletinboardswill give you ideas for collaborative kindness activities to brighten your classroom or hall. They also deliver positive messages that students read over and over to develop a growth mindset.
Affirmation quotes are especially good for visual learners as they help to reinforce essential character traits and social skills to encourage an inclusive community.
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Studies show that affirmations can counteract negative thoughts and habits. That's why kindness bulletin boards can be so powerful. Their positive messages remind students of the good behavior that is expected at school.
Most of the displays below can be adapted for preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, or even high school and help to reinforce lessons about friendship and respect. Counselors and social workers love this type of kindness activities for kids because they're a powerful way to nurture social skills and reinforce positive character traits.
There are plenty of bulletin board ideas for middle school and even high school, so grab a cuppa and delight in this feast of positivity with some of the best kindness bulletin boards we've seen on the internet that send a clear message of love and inclusion.
If you're specifically looking for a kindness tree, check out this post with almost 50 amazing bulletin boards!
If you'd like to make your own, we have a kit for a kindness tree, "throw kindness like confetti" door, and our very popular kindness quilt to make it super simple.
See Kindness Trees HERE!
Share Photos of Your Kindness Activities for Elementary Students!
If you have made asocial-emotional bulletin board that turned out great, have created another type of kindness display or seen one on the internet that's not included here, we'd love to see!! Please email a link for unique bulletin board ideas you like or photos of your own with a short blurb about it along with the name, state, and country of your school.
Contribute your kindness bulletin board and your beautiful work could be added here to inspire other schools.
SUBMIT HERE
Unique Kindness Bulletin Board Ideas for Your Hallway
1. Be a Rainbow in Someone Else's Cloud
Westwood Elementary GT Specialist Danyelle displayed this beautiful rainbow visual as a reminder to her school family to comfort and care for one another after Hurricane Harvey flooded her town.
This cute rainbow bulletin board was constructed by the Secret Agents of Kindness at Great Falls Elementary. These exceptional kids should be very proud of their awesome idea!
2. Be the I in KIND
Wendy Hankins says their “Be the l in KIND!” is—by far—her favorite of the kindness bulletin boards created at her school. Her @KindKidsatKirk Club grabbed the idea from Twitter of course!
The bulletin board was created to remind students, staff, and anyone else who walks by that each one of us have the power to be the “Be the ‘l’ in KIND!”
In addition, to the bulletin board, footprints are taped on the floor for kids, staff & anyone who visits @KirkElementary to stand and “Be the l in KIND!” They have even taken pictures and given the photos to the person acting as the “I” as a permanent reminder!
@MrsHankinsClass encourages teachers to follow her and some of her colleagues @MrsOwingsClass and @StrongKristy on Twitter for more ideas to spread kindness!
Michelle Kissingis a 3rd grade teacher atCrab Orchard Schoolin Marion, Illinois. Her students participated in a classroom kindness challenge from their local news station. The students got together and decided to make a bulletin board to put up in their school’s main hallway that would promote kindness.
They chose “Be The ‘I’ In Kind” and took photos of students standing in place of the letter I. They felt that this showed kids to take ownership of promoting kindness in their school. Even their superintendent stepped up to “BE The I”!
One of Michelle's students said she hopes that the board would “bring a smile to someone’s face and remind them to be nice and kind to everyone.“ Another student added, “and let that person’s act of kindness encourage others to do it too!“
3. Take What You Need - Give What You Can
At Indian Lake High School students received "word wall" of encouragement from elementary kids. Educator Amber Shively created the "Take What You Need, Give What You Can" wall outside of her classroom after seeing the idea on Pinterest.
She enlisted students from the elementary school to write something kind or funny on post it notes with teachers also adding their own words of wisdom. Amber encouraged students to take a note whenever they were feeling sad or lonely and invited them to add their own words of encouragement for someone else having a bad day.
The wall was part of a cross-campus effort to support and highlight positive behaviors from all students.
Another great example found on Pinterest.
4. Throw Kindness Like Confetti
When teachers or students at Nottingham Elementary saw someone being kind during kindness week, they would take a piece of "confetti" to write the good deed on and add it to the windows and walls. What resulted is a very colorful Throw Kindness Like Confetti display that reminded everyone of their school values.
5. Pick a Random Act of Kindness
This RAK board created by FACS teacher Caroline Friday at De Soto High School in Kansas allows anyone to take a card from an envelope and do the act of kindness listed on it.
After doing their good deed they are encouraged to take a picture of either their kindness or the board itself. “I tried to get people to post a picture, either of the card or the act of kindness itself, hopefully anonymously to keep the acts random,” Friday said.
A student who commented on the positive effect the board was having said “Every time I walk past the board, it reminds me that I’m not the only person who could be having a bad day and that I shouldn’t be obsessing over my own feelings but trying to improve someone else’s day instead.”
A similar board found on pinterest where students are encouraged to choose an act of kindness from one of the 25 envelopes on the board. They post a photo of their act of kindness in the space provided.
And one more great example from Euroamerican School of Monterrey.
6. Have You Filled a Bucket Today?
AtLittle Mrs. Preschool, Kimberly created a bucket filling bulletin board after sharing the book "Have You Filled A Bucket Today?:A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids" by Carol McCloud. Each child has their own bucket that they get to fill with a “warm fuzzy” when they are a bucket filler.
How Kimberly Encourages Bucket Filling in Her Classroom:
- I buy mini-buckets from Target ($1) and have each child pick one out and label it.
- I hang them up in a special spot in our classroom that the kids can see each day.
- Each time they do a kind act they get to put a "warm fuzzy" (pom-pom) in their individual bucket.
- Every week or so we empty all the individual buckets into our "classroom bucket".
- When the classroom bucket becomes full we do something special in our classroom as a reward (e.g., pizza party, ice cream social).
- EVERY DAY, ALL DAY we promote this concept! We are constantly encouraging, reminding, and recognizing every child's efforts to be bucket fillers in our classroom.
- We encourage the parents to promote this idea at home. Several parents even bought their own buckets to encourage bucket filling in their family!
See Bucket Filler Books HERE
Two other fantastic examples of bucket filling bulletin boards. I love how Primary Graffiti has used plastic shoe hanger as an alternative to buckets.
7. How Do You Sprinkle Kindness?
Counselor Barbara Gruener is all about kindness and had this pretty bulletin board made where she added butterfly post-it notes with students' answers from a peace class she held. These were some of the things they said: keep your promises, read with someone, invite someone over, listen, play nicely, tell the truth, smile at someone.
8. Cool To Be Kind
Another wonderful idea from Counselor Barbara Gruener.
The hat worn by each snowman invites students to be conscious of where/when they might show kindness to others - i.e. on the playground, in the classroom, in the hallways, and toward others. Buttons on each snowman offer suggestions as to how students might put kindness into action in these different scenarios. For example;On the playground, you can show kindness by inviting someone who is playing alone to come play with you or let someone go ahead of you on the slide, etc!
9. Things We Should Say More Often
How about this for an awesome idea! This bulletin board from Distinctive Schools is a great reminder for students to think about others.
Schools in this district believe their students should be more considerate with their words and display examples of things that everyone can say more often. You can do it!! You are the best! Thank you. Good luck. You got this. How are you? Sorry!
10. Kindness Matters 24/7 - 365
I just can't get enough of the amazing creations from my counselling friend Barbara Gruener. She's such a huge inspiration as you can see by the multiple photos in this post.
Inspired by countdown calendars she'd sent home to parents in the past, Barbara decided to make a life size bulletin board to encourage kindness in her students. When a fourth grader passed by and pointed out that the daily numbers were missing, Barbara replied it was because kindness knows no calendar, she'd left them off on purpose.
Contribute your kindness bulletin board and your great work could be added here to inspire other schools.
SUBMIT HERE
11. 10 Ways to Get People to Like You
A fabulous idea for encouraging students to be their best selves from A Time to Share and Create.
12. Choose Kind
Mrs. Hopwood’s 7th grade literature class were inspired to create a bulletin board after reading Wonderby R.J. Palacio. Wanting to highlight the novel’s empowering message they decorated a bulletin board in a second floor hallway to remind their fellow students to “choose kind”. They filled it with original precepts (a challenge, goal, or rule to live by) and wrote positive words of encouragement to their peers.
See Kindness Book Suggestions HERE
Saint Elizabeth Catholic School in Rockville, MD choose kind!
13. A Seed of Kindness Can Go Farther Than You Think
Elementary school teacher, Erica Gerber created this wonderful bulletin board. "Long story short, my students need a constant reminder of how to treat one another. As a bonus, we had just finished learning about seed dispersal."
14. Calculate Kindness into Every Day
Snapped by my counsellor friend at St. John’s Lutheran School in Plymouth, Wisconsin.
15. Plant the Seeds of Kindness
The Multiple Disabilities Support Classroom at Central Bucks High School South participated in various pre-vocational and vocational activities. Students took part in school "jobs" such as washing, folding, and delivering laundry, adding paper to copy machines and dusting in the library, putting trays away in the cafeteria, and delivering mail to teachers in the school. They also worked on functional life skills such as cooking, daily living skills, and personal grooming skills as well as fine motor skills, social skills and communication, and gross motor skills during the school day.
Their students and staff always have a smile on their faces and a song in their hearts as they believe in the motto: "Positive thoughts attract positive results".
16. In a World Where You Can be Anything, BE KIND
After reading the book "Kindness Counts" by Bryan Smith, Becky fromDots -n- Spots asked her students to write their suggestions for acts of kindness on a form she'd printed. These were hung on the bulletin board she made and put on display so all students could see how hers planned to show more kindness to others. Becky revisited their goals at the end of the month to see who followed through and how it made them feel.
17. Kindness is Like Snow, it Beautifies Everything it Covers
We love this bulletin board created by students in the TOGS (Township of Ocean Growing Strong) program at Ocean Township High School. Several clubs at the school are participating in this initiative to promote kindness and positivity.
18. We Are Kind!
When Stratford National School in Dublin, Ireland celebrated their first kindness week they created lovely pictures depicting kindness and made a link chain for a whole school display. Their aim was to show that they are all connected together and that kindness makes the world a more beautiful place.
They also did lots of random acts of kindness amongst their classes, such as the senior classes inviting the junior classes to go to the park, and the junior classes asking whether the senior classes could have a night off homework or some extra yard time. Some classes sang songs for other classes and kindly gave stickers to each other. Some classes kept kindness diaries. We also got to 'walk a mile with a smile' with partners from different classes.
Focusing on kindness throughout this special week has inspired them to continue celebrating kindness each and every day.
19. Be Kind - Lend a Hand!
After reading the book "I Walk With Vanessa" by Kerascoet and poems from "Lend a Hand", the kindergarten children at Del Mar Pines School in San Diego, CA created a bulletin board to remind them that they can all Be Kind and Lend a Hand.
20. I See Kindness Everywhere!
Inspired by the mirrored walls that were popping up all over a Pinterest, Counselor Barbara Gruener found a way for her students at Bales Intermediate to reflect on kindness in their school family and beyond the school walls. Once the mirrors were up, students suggested the display could use something more, so they downloaded coloring sheets from the Ripple Kindness website to put the finishing touches on this heart-shaped display.
21. Tree of Respect
During the 2019-2020 school year, @MrsOwingsClass & @MrsHankinsClass are working diligently for their school @KirkElementaryto become a designated #NoPlaceForHate school. To earn the designation, staff and students have been completing lessons throughout the year that teach respect and spread kindness in efforts to prevent hate, bullying, and violence. During their journey, all 900+ of their students and many staff members traced their hand, wrote how they can show respect on it, and created the #TreeOfRespect. The tree hangs in their school’s main hallway and serves as a reminder to all who pass it of the importance of respect in school and in life.
Contribute your kindness bulletin board and your great work could be added here to inspire other schools.
SUBMIT HERE
Kindness Bulletin Boards Submitted by Teachers
1. Kindness Tree
Billy Holloway made a kindness tree bulletin board at his school. He printed out leaves in the shape of hearts for students to add their acts of kindness.
"We just started school, so I put this together with a few things. I am going to start having the kids look for acts of kindness and add more throughout the year. I love this. It is so cute. Thank you so much." - KaeLene, School Support Specialist, Nevada
2. We are Fluent in Kindness - Classroom Door
"We are having a door decorating contest for Connections class, but I don’t have one since I’m part-time. I didn’t want our door to be blank, so I asked my 8th-grade World Language students to write ways that they show kindness onto the different sized and colored hearts.
Their answers? Show empathy. Hugs. Smiles. Hold the door for someone. Encourage others. Cheer people up if they’re down. Show respect.
Not only are we learning to speak Spanish, but we are also becoming fluent in kindness!" - Barbara Gruener, Friendswood Junior High.
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