Teaser Question: What do you do to make new kids feel welcome?
Going Deeper: Could you care for someone you don't like? Have you ever been "the new kid" and tried to join a group? What were you feeling as you waited to see if the group would accept you?
Making Choices: A new student who joins your class grew up in a foreign country. The student speaks with an accent and does not fit in easily. Your friends make fun of the new student. What do you do?
Movie: Seabiscuit Theme: Compassion
Teaser Question: Why are people's faults easier to notice than their good qualities?
Going Deeper: Do you think your parents focus more on the things you do wrong than the things you do right? How about your teachers?
Making Choices: You are part of a group project to build a model house out of smooth sticks and small sheets of cardboard. One of the group members is smart in many ways, but is clumsy and messy when it comes to building things. How can you help this person become a valued member of the group?
Movie: Forrest Gump Theme: Sensitivity to Others
Teaser Question: Why is it hard to welcome and include others who are different than we are?
Going Deeper: What made Jenny seem like an angel to Forrest? Have you ever been an angel to someone? Who has been a "sweet voice" to you? Why? Why is it easier to be nice to someone who is different when you meet them alone than when you are with your friends?
Making Choices: There is a student in your class that no one likes. You know this student is really good at math. None of your friends are good at math and are getting together to study for a big test. Should you invite this student to join in? What will you tell your friends?
Movie: Charlotte's Web Theme: Selflessness
Teaser Question: Should kindness be based on what you can get in return?
Going Deeper: Why do you think Templeton acts selfishly? Why do you think Wilbur acts selflessly? Who do you think is happier? Why? Is it easier to do a favor for a friend than it is for a stranger? Is it easier to do something for a popular person than for someone nobody likes? Why?
Making Choices: A sick friend needs blood in order to get better. It is not a life-or-death situation, but it is needed. You are old enough to give blood, but you are deathly afraid of needles. Will you go ahead and give blood? What if your friend might die without it? What if you were asked to give one of your kidneys in order for your friend to live?
Activities
Keeping a Journal
As a homework assignment or in a class activity, the students will write two entries into their journal under the heading of Kindness answering the following questions:
Of all the examples of kindness demonstrated in the clips, which was your favorite? Why?
Tell of a time when you showed kindness in your life. What were the consequences?
Tell of a time when you were unkind. What were the consequences?
Activity 1: To Belong or Not to Belong?
Performance Objective: To discuss how it feels to be included or excluded and to design ways to include others.
Materials Needed: Sheets of paper and markers or crayons for each student.
Instructions:
Hand out three sheets of paper per student, along with colored markers/crayons.
Ask the students to think about a time when they felt really included, when they truly belonged, to a group. Instruct them to use their markers to make a picture of how it felt to be included, to belong. The picture can be whatever they want to color, abstract or otherwise, as long as it conveys their feeling of belonging.
Now ask them to recall a time when they felt excluded from a group, when they did not belong. How did that feel? Instruct them to create a picture on the second sheet of paper of the way it felt to not belong, to be excluded.
Break them into small groups of four and ask them to share their pictures among themselves. Then, using the extra sheets, instruct the members of each group to think of themselves as a Welcoming Committee for the class and encourage them to dream up various signs that can let others know that they belong (for example, a smiling face, representing acceptance). The groups will then share their signs with the rest of the class and discuss the various ways in which they can help others feel included.
Activity 2: The Seat of Honor
Performance Objective: To encourage the practice of sharing with others the things we appreciate about them.
Materials Needed: One chair in the front of the room, facing the class. One blindfold.
Instructions:
Ask each student, one at a time, to sit in the Seat of Honor and then blindfold that student. Randomly invite the other students to say to that classmate the things that they appreciate about him or her (for example, "You are always generous with others," or "You always make people feel welcome.") Only positive statements may be offered.
After everyone has had a chance to offer their words of appreciation, the first student removes the blindfold and goes back to his/her normal seat, while another student is chosen to come forward, be blindfolded and sit in the Seat of Honor.
The same exercise is repeated for the next student, and so on until each person in the class has had a chance to experience the Seat of Honor.
After everyone has had their opportunity, discuss what it felt like to be "honored." What did it feel like to praise the other students when it was their turn? Is it more difficult to honor someone else or to insult them or put them down?
Activity 3: A Family Tree of Kindness
Performance Objective: To remember the people who have shown kindness to us in times past and to consider the individuals to whom we have shown kindness or to whom we need to show kindness.
Materials Needed: Sheet of paper for each student with his/her name in the middle, preceded by five blank lines above and followed by five blank lines below.
Instructions:
Ask each student to recall the individuals who have at different points in that student's life, shown kindness to him/her. Instruct them to write down the names of five of these "kindness-givers" on the lines about their own name.
Ask each student to consider five individuals either to whom they have intentionally shown kindness, or need to reach out to with kindness. They should write these names in the blanks below their name.
Discuss the kinds of ways in which the kindness-givers reached out and showed care and concern. What did they say or do to show kindness?
Discuss what it is about the persons whose names are on the bottom of each sheet that made us show kindness, or want to show kindness, to them. What difficulties do we face in showing kindness? What obstacles are there to overcome?
How did the kindness we received from the people above our name help us to reach out to the ones below our name? How can we keep the Family Tree of Kindness going?
Activity 4: Role Play
Performance Objective: To express opinions on a topic through written, oral, or dramatic expression.
Materials Needed: Paper, pencil, props for skits
Instructions:
The teacher divides the class into groups of five students.
Groups are instructed to come up with a situation where someone displays kindness to someone else, and to develop a short role play or "skit" to present this situation.
Each group presents their skit to the whole class.
After all the role plays have been performed, the teacher leads the whole class in a discussion on the ideas contained in the skits regarding kindness.
Optional Teaching Strategies
Students write individual papers about a time when someone said or did a kind thing toward them. What did it fell like to be on the receiving end of kindness?
Students work together to create an audio/visual presentation showing examples of kindness.
Students re-enact the scene of one of the clips, but with a different ending.