Activity 1: Listening/Speaking/Reading

The Science of Kindness

https://youtu.be/O9UByLyOjBM 

• Before watching, ask the students
  • Why is it good to be kind?
  • How does our kindness affect others?
  • How does our kindness affect us?
• Invite the students to pay attention to the different ways that kindness affects us.
• Watch the video and have students note the different ways kindness affects us.
• After watching, discuss the impact of kindness.
• Second watch-through, give students the cloze quiz and have them fill in the blanks. Cloze Quiz
• If needed, watch the video a third time, so the students can fill in as many of the blanks as possible (the video is only 2:15, so it shouldn't take too much time).
• Have students read the finished cloze quiz. Each student reads a sentence.

Activity 2: Speaking 

• Invite the students to think about a time when someone was kind to them. Now, pairs of students are going to interview one another in order to learn more about the experience. When interviewing someone, you need lots of questions. Questions can begin with who, what, when, where, why, and how. As a class, brainstorm at least one question for each question word that students can use to interview one another.
• As the students interview one another, they will each use at least one question from each question word category. One student will be the interviewer and the other the interviewee. Then, they'll switch.
• After the first interviews are finished, each student will find a new partner to interview. This time, though, the students will answer the questions based on the story their previous partner told them.
• After the second set of interviews are done, ask the students questions, such as
• What were some of the stories your neighbors told you?
• Who was kind to them?
• What did they do?
• How did they feel afterwards?

Activity 3: Listening/Speaking 

Life Vest Inside - Kindness Boomerang - "One Day" 

https://youtu.be/nwAYpLVyeFU 

• We just heard a lot of different stories about how to be kind. Now, we're going to watch a video with several more examples. As we do this, pay attention to the different acts of kindness that we haven't discussed yet.
• For the activity, have students pair up and sit so one student faces the screen and the other faces away from the screen. The student facing the screen will watch the video, and they must describe what they see to the student facing away (can mute video if you so wish).
• At the 2:20 minute mark, switch who faces forward and who faces backward.
• After finishing the video, have each student repeat a couple of the things their partner described to them. Were they right? Were they wrong?
• (Time permitting) Have students repeat the activity, but this time, have them focus on more than just the actions. They could describe:
• what the street looks like
• what shops there are
• what the weather is like
• what season it probably is
• who the people are
• They can include as much description as they want. Go wild! Get creative!

Activity 4: Listening 

Kindness through words

• Kindness can be shown in a multitude of ways. This website lists 6 different ways: service, patience, compassion, love and friendship, words, and giving time.
• Number the students of 1 to 6, corresponding to the 6 ways to show kindness. Then, have students think about times someone showed them kindness in this way. (They cannot reuse the story they told for activity 2.)
• Give the students the bingo sheets. They must have someone for each category tell them their story about kindness. Kindness Bingo
• Then, that student can initial under the correct category. The first student to get 4 in a row wins. 
• What stories did you hear? What ways of showing kindness did you learn about?

Activity 5: Speaking

• What are the benefits of kindness? 
• What are some of the ways we can show kindness to others? 
• How can you show kindness to someone today?