Don’t you know yet? It is your light that lights the world.
In today’s lesson, students will learn to put compassion into action. Performing acts of kindness for others has a bigger impact on our own happiness than you might expect. It’s rewarding to know that you brightened someone’s day or put a smile on their face. As students practice a random act of kindness, they discover that kindness actually has a dual purpose: extensive research has illustrated that when we are giving and generous with our time and resources, we feel an increased sense of well-being in ourselves. In this way, kindness doesn’t just benefit others but also improves our own levels of happiness and satisfaction.
Prior to teaching the lesson, watch the guest artist videos and perform your own random act of kindness to share with your students.
Kevin Love explains that helping others can be beneficial to the recipient and also to the person who is offering help. He shares that he felt inspired to give a donation to the people who work at the Cleveland Cavaliers stadium after games were canceled at the start of the pandemic.
Chris Paul shares the story of his late grandfather who modeled kindness and generosity in the way he treated the people who came to his store, often allowing them a reduced price for fuel or the ability to delay their payment.
Aditya describes the way helping people in his community with their taxes made him feel empowered and uplifted.
Shreya and Saffron Patel describe the inspiration behind the organization they created called Letters Against Isolation, which uses letter writing to help ease loneliness in senior citizens.
High school student Mia shares how she and a friend spread a little love and kindness during a stressful time – finals! They placed words of encouragement on post-it notes around campus for students to read.
Display the ‘welcome slide’ from the Lesson 11 PowerPoint as you begin.
*Slide 1
As discussed in the teacher training, remember to make the suggested language below authentic to yourself and meaningful for your students.
* Slide 2
Kevin Love has spoken publicly about the way being generous with others has brought happiness into his life. Chris Paul is another NBA player who speaks about how his grandfather modeled generosity – which impacted not only his own life, but had a positive influence on his community growing up. We are going to watch short videos from Chris and Kevin sharing about this link between kindness or generosity and happiness.”
In the first video, Kevin describes his donation to the people who work at the arena where the Cleveland Cavaliers play. In the second video, Chris Paul shares a story about his grandfather’s generosity and kindness as he supported their community by offering discounts at his service station.
Introduce the next video of an additional example of generosity and kindness. You could also use a video clip from your own local context that you feel will better resonate with the students in your classroom or school community.
Example of What You Could Say:
“Kevin and Chris’s videos showed us big acts of generosity, but many acts of generosity are smaller and don’t require you to spend money to begin helping people in your community. Here is another example of generosity and kindness from a teenager who made an impact in their community.”
Play whichever additional video(s) you think will resonate most with your students.
*Slide 3
Reflect on the way the videos all illustrated how uplifting it can feel to be kind and generous, and then share your example of completing an act of kindness in your community. Explain that students will now plan and complete a random act of kindness themselves.
Example of What You Could Say:
“We just watched a few videos of people sharing kind and generous acts. This is something really wonderful about generosity and kindness; aside from improving the lives of others, it lifts your own spirits as well.
I did not want to ask you all to put yourselves out there without also trying this out myself, so I thought of an act of kindness that would feel sincere to me. (Share your example.)
As a class, let’s brainstorm a few ways that we can help other people in our community through acts of kindness and generosity.”
Example of What You Could Say:
“Now, let’s break into small groups to brainstorm the act of kindness and generosity that you want to accomplish. Everyone should practice a random act of kindness in our community. You can do this activity as a group or on your own. The timeframe for this activity is… (The educator decides whether this activity will be completed in class today, later tonight, or sometime this week.)
After completing the assignment, you can write down how the experience went, and how it felt for you. Or, if you like, you can make a short video about the experience. Next time we meet, we can all come together and share about the act of kindness that we completed.”
*This part of the lesson is completed after the random acts of kindness have been done in the community.
Come back together as a group and ask students to share their random acts of kindness (either verbally through storytelling or by sharing their videos).
Example of What You Could Say:
“In our last class, we explored the ways that acts of kindness and generosity can be a positive and fulfilling experience. Then you went out into the community to put that idea into practice by doing kind deeds. Let’s watch the videos you made or hear about the acts of kindness you performed.”
Lead the class in reflecting on how it felt to attempt these random acts of kindness.
Example of What You Could Say:
“Let’s talk a little about your random acts of kindness. How did it go? How did it make you feel? Were you surprised by the reactions to your kind act? Would you do it again?
(Allow your students to share.)
Thank you so much for sharing your good deeds with me. I’m so proud of how much joy you spread in our community. I hope you remember how rewarding it feels to be kind to others and that you carry this knowledge with you even after this lesson.”
If you or your students would like to learn more about the ideas in this lesson, additional resources and third party links are included below.
The website Random Acts of Kindness.org describes additional ideas to support students in being kind to others.