We all know that kindness is one of the most important skills we can nurture in our classrooms, but teaching it isn’t always as simple as saying “be kind.” Our students need to see kindness, talk about it, and most importantly, practice it. If you need some fresh ideas to teach kindness in your classroom, you’re in the right place! Today I’m sharing some of my favorite books, hands-on learning ideas, and classroom resources that make those lessons stick! Whether you’re planning for Kindness Week or just looking to grow your classroom community, these ideas are easy to implement and full of heart.

Why Teaching Kindness Counts in the Primary Classroom

When it comes to primary learners, we teach them so much more than math and phonics skills. As teachers, we build community in our classrooms. We model kindness, teach empathy, and help our littlest learners become not just good students, but good humans. Kindness is one of those big, important concepts that will have a huge impact on the classroom culture and ultimately your students’ school experience.

This is such an important topic to educate students on, but it’s not always easy. Sometimes, it can feel like we only talk about kindness during those moments when children aren’t being so kind to each other. Instead of waiting until the moment strikes for a teaching (or redirecting) opportunity, consider sprinkling kindness lessons into your routine. You can do this as a thematic unit in your classroom, or choose one day a week to weave a kindness lesson in. Either way, this is going to be a great thing for you and your kiddos!

Picture Books & Follow-Up Lessons to Teach Kindness

One of my favorite ways to spark these meaningful conversations is with picture books. A good read-aloud has a way of opening little hearts and helping students connect with big ideas in ways that feel safe and relatable. Not to mention, there are tons of great ways to expand on picture books in your lessons. Here are some of my favorite books and mini-lessons to teach kindness in the classroom.

The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig

If you’re looking for a book to gently point children towards inclusion and being kind to everyone, this is the book for you! This story speaks to every child who’s ever felt left out. We always have those children in our class who sit alone, play solo, or feel excluded. No one wants to feel like this! Primary-aged students may not even be aware of this, and The Invisible Boy is a great way to nudge them toward noticing.

In this book, we meet Brian. He is a quiet and artistic student who often feels unnoticed by his peers and sometimes even by his teacher. Brian’s sense of invisibility is shown in a way that students will relate to with illustrations and descriptions that will help them understand how difficult this would feel. I love this book as a way to talk about a topic that can be tricky!

Kindness Follow-Up Activity: Make a “Noticer” Notebook

After reading, reflect with students on how Brian felt when he was left out, and how things changed when someone noticed him. Ask the children to recall how Brian felt and name those emotions aloud. I love to create an anchor chart as they call things out. You can write words or draw pictures depending on the age of your kids.

After making your chart, create a simple “Noticer Notebook” for the whole class to use. Throughout the week, let students take turns writing or drawing about a time they saw someone doing something kind, including others, or making someone feel seen. If you have older students, this notebook can be passed around daily for them to use independently and share at your morning meeting the next day. If you have very young children, take the initiative to do this as a group each day and ask volunteers to share something kind during circle time, and then add it to the notebook. Either way, your students are bound to start seeing kindness everywhere and including others more regularly!

Kindness is Cooler by Margery Cuyler

If there’s one thing I want my kiddos to learn, it’s that spreading kindness is cool! That’s where this fun picture book will come in handy. Margery Cuyler is one of my favorite authors, and this book certainly doesn’t disappoint. In this story, a teacher is focused on teaching kindness to her students. She is determined to help her students stack up 100 acts of kindness, and your kids will love counting along with the book.

This book is especially great for primary learners because it walks through many different ways students can be kind at school, at home, and in the community. There are so many realistic and relatable examples in this book. It will really get your kids thinking about ways they can be kind to friends and family members.

Follow Up Activity: Kindness is Cool Bulletin Board

After reading this book in your classroom, consider extending this activity with a fun, Kindness is Cool Bulletin Board. In this resource, you will find everything you need to create an adorable display that reads “It’s Cool to Be Kind”. Inside, you get:

• bulletin board letters
• editable cat cut-outs (add students’ names)
• cat craft toppers
• a cute cat banner
• writing prompt & cat-themed writing paper

The included writing prompt is, “How can you show kindness today?”. Challenge your kids to think about that and write about something they can do right away. They will have plenty of great ideas handy after reading this picture book! Hang them up on the bulletin board and you’ve got a great visual reminder on how students can be kind each and every day.

The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld

In The Rabbit Listened, a young child named Taylor builds an amazing tower and later finds out it was destroyed. I know your young students will be able to relate to this one! Throughout the book, many different animals offer him advice to make him feel better, but the one who makes the biggest impact is Rabbit. He simply listens to Tyler.

This is a great way to help children understand that there is incredible power in listening to others and being there for them when they are sad. We don’t always have to have the solution, we just need to listen! This is a valuable lesson for kids and adults alike and is sure to be a new favorite in your classroom.

Follow Up Activity: Teach Kindness with Self-Reflection

This book offers the perfect opportunity to have your children reflect on a time when they were feeling sad and journal about it. Part of teaching kindness is also teaching self-awareness. We want our kiddos to process difficult feelings and consider how they felt in hard moments. Reflection is something kids don’t tend to naturally do on their own, so taking this opportunity to encourage it is a great way to foster social-emotional growth in your classroom.

For this journaling activity, I like to offer sentence starters such as “I felt sad when…” and encourage kids to finish the sentence. Older children can write more, while younger kids can write just a few words. The key is to have them reflect and ponder those feelings!

Creating Kindness by Rebecca Greene

Creating Kindness is such a gem. In this story, Huckleberry Hedgehog and his friend Olivia Owl notice that their forest friends are feeling a little down. Oh no! Rather than ignoring it, they decide to do something simple, yet meaningful. They paint kind, encouraging messages on rocks and leave them around the neighborhood. What follows is a ripple effect of joy and positivity, showing kids that even the smallest acts of kindness can make a big difference in the long run.

This book is a gentle, engaging way to help young children understand the impact of being thoughtful and kind. Plus, the idea of kindness rocks is so easy to recreate in your classroom—you’ll be ready to follow up with a hands-on activity right after story time!

Follow Up Activity: Reminder Rocks for Teaching Kindness

Interested in making kindness rocks for your classroom? You can check out this list of supplies to see how we made these come to life. The process is really simple! Just collect some flat, large rocks (or buy the suggested ones on my shopping list) and then allow the children to use paint pens to write kind messages on them. For younger kids, they can paint the rocks to be bright and cheery and spread joy without words. Don’t forget to spray them with clear coat gloss after, so they last! When they are dry, place them around your classroom for a reminder to be kind and encouraging every day.

The Kindness Book by Todd Parr

I love books by Todd Parr! They are bright and cheerful and perfect for teaching important concepts such as kindness. This picture book will help your kids understand the concept of kindness in a simple and relatable manner. Each page explores various ways to be kind, such as listening, saying sorry, helping others, and showing compassion to animals and the environment. The text is super simple, making it easy to grasp for even your youngest students.

Aside from the bright and colorful pictures, I love that this book touches on many different forms of kindness. Over the years, I have learned that kids tend to focus on “good deeds” as the primary way to be kind. This book will show them there are many ways to show kindness to others!

Follow Up Activity: Brainstorm Ways to Show Kindness

After reading, invite students to brainstorm ways to show kindness at school. Write their ideas on chart paper using vocabulary words and simple illustrations or pictures to make it easy to remember. I like to hang the finished chart up as a visual reminder. If your kids are having a hard time coming up with ideas, prompt them with questions, or flip open the book again and review. I like to have kids complete a simple journal page after writing a sentence for one way we can show kindness at school, and drawing a picture to go with it. It’s a simple way to keep kindness top of mind in your classroom!

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Have you ever heard of The Lupine Lady? If not, you’re in for a treat! This book is one of my favorites, and it has won the American Book Award, so I think many others agree! Miss Rumphius is a beautifully illustrated picture book that follows the life of a fictional lady called Alice Rumphius. As a child, Alice tells her grandfather she wants to do three things: travel the world, live by the sea, and do something to make the world more beautiful.

This book is filled with her life adventures and all of the places her travels take her. Students will love to follow along to learn about why she is eventually called “The Lupine Lady” and what she does to spread kindness and make the world more beautiful.

Follow Up Activity: Practice Kindness with a Lupine Art Project

My favorite activity to follow up this book with is a fun Lupine Fingerprint art project. Watch the video for full details, but just know that this is such an easy art activity and really great for primary learners. All you need are markers, wet paper towels, and white paper. Students will color their fingertips with the marker and press them strategically on the paper to form the flowers. You could also use stamp pads if you have those available in your art supplies. Either way, these turn out absolutely beautifully and allow for some creative expression in the classroom.

This video also includes a quick introduction to lupine flowers and pictures of real lupines, too! Tie in your kindness theme here by having children write a sentence or two for someone special on the bottom of the paper after it dries. They can give away their creation as a random act of kindness and spread some beauty in their own world!

Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson

Next up, this adorable picture book tells the story of Mary, a seemingly ordinary girl who performs a simple act of kindness by picking blueberries for her neighbor, Mrs. Bishop. This small gesture sets off a chain reaction of positive effects in her community and eventually circles back to her!

I love that this book teaches the concept of “pay it forward” and shows kids how giving kindness away can have a big impact on our lives. This book is the perfect way to open up the conversation about this topic and ask students about times when they “paid it forward” or were gifted a thoughtful gesture from someone else.

Follow Up Activity: Teaching Kindness with a Freebie

And. . . guess what, friends? I’ve got the perfect follow-up activity for you to try with this book! With my Free Giving it Away Kaci Bolls Craft Unit, you’ll be able to easily encourage kindness in your classroom. This unit is based on the children’s song “Giving it Away” by Kaci Bolls. This wonderful song helps remind your students to give kindness away as a gift to others and ties in perfectly with this picture book.

The activities in this lesson pack also complement the song and serve as a fun way to exercise acts of kindness in your classroom. Included you’ll find bookmarks, two fun bulletin boards, craftivities, classroom posters, and more! Grab this free lesson pack to help your students remember to be kind! 

More Books for Teaching Kindness

If you know me, you probably already know that I absolutely love picture books. They are so great when actively teaching kindness in your classroom! As I mentioned above, if you really want to keep kindness at the center of your classroom, consider choosing one day per week to include a mini-lesson and a read aloud like the ones above. There are tons of other great kindness books out there, including:

• Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud 
• The Jelly Donut Difference: Sharing Kindness with the World by Maria Dismondy
• Superbuns!: Kindness Is Her Superpower by Diane Kredensor

Looking for even more inspiration when it comes to books all about kindness? Be sure to check out all of my favorites on Amazon here! There’s a little something for everyone on this list!

Have Fun Teaching Kindness in Your Classroom

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the fun and easy ways you can start teaching kindness with picture books and mini-lessons. Using engaging read-alouds along with these activities is a surefire way to spread kindness in your classroom. Don’t forget to grab the Free Giving it Away Kaci Bolls Craft Unit, and be sure to check out the Kindness is Cool Bulletin Board kit to complement your lessons!

Looking for More?

After teaching about kindness in your classroom, consider expanding on this social-emotional topic and reading some Picture Books About Feelings and Emotions next!

Save These Ideas for Teaching Kindness

Make sure to pin these ideas for teaching kindness on Pinterest. That way, you can come back to it when you’re ready to dive into this topic in your classroom!