Who said, “you have to be kind”?

SUMMARY

  • Subject(s): Lower Schoolers

  • Topic or Unit of Study: Kindness even when no one is looking

  • Grade/Level: 4th & 5th graders

  • Relating to : Courage + Fairness + Social Responsibility

  • Time Allotment: 1 hour in total

IMPLEMENTATION

Main idea: How should we act and what kind of people should we strive to be?


QUESTIONS TO ASK KIDS AFTER/DURING ACTIVITY

  1. How can we make these decisions if we don’t know exactly how to respond?

  2. Are we obliged by anyone like an adult to do these things and if we aren’t (if an adult or others aren’t looking) should we even care?

  3. How do you react to these situations? How does it relate to Courage or Fairness or your Social Responsibility?

INTRODUCTION

  • A slideshow about MLK jr, Nelson Mandela, Malala Yousafzai, Susan B. Anthony, Mother Teresa...

  • Showing examples of a wide range of the few of many people who have changed views on equality for the better: serving humanity with hope for kindness rather than hatred.

  1. Explain who these people are and ask the kids to think about what they all have in common.

  2. Everyone can serve humanity, it is not a matter of gender or race. Look at their personalities and what is similar between them.

SPLIT UP IN GROUPS

  1. Ask the kids to sit in a circle around a big piece of paper or whiteboard while you have your iPad looking at the following different situations.

  2. Tell them you are going to tell a story (the situations) and as you are telling it have one different kid each time draw the situation out as they hear it on the piece of paper or whiteboard.

  3. Once the kid finishes, have them sit back down or just make sure everyone is attentive to go through the scenario together and see how they’d figure it out or what everyone’s opinions are.

-EXAMPLES:

  1. You are selling your favorite fidget spinner to a friend and when they hand you the money you asked for you realize later that instead of a $10 bill they gave you a $100. Do you keep it or tell them?

  2. A classmate seems always to take credit for your work, so doesn’t revenge seem just in this case?

  3. You see someone steal a lot of money. What they do with it however is give everything to charity for a lot of kids in need. Do you tell authorities what you have seen or do you let this thief who has helped needy kids get away with it? If you do tell then the money is returned and the kids are in desperate need of help again.

  4. You are a doctor at a top hospital. You have six super ill patients, five of whom are in urgent need of organ transplants. You can't help them, though, because there are no available organs that can be used to save their lives. The sixth patient, however, will die without a particular medicine. If s/he dies, you will be able to save the other five patients by using the organs of patient 6, who is an organ donor. What do you do?

ACT OF KINDNESS BOX
Ask them to answer the question “what are you doing for others?” by writing down ideas on a paper sheet. Ask them to share it with the other group.

CLOSING QUESTION
Ask how the famous people mentioned in the beginning are related