by Rachel Wells

February can be such a sweet month in the classroom! If you are a teacher who wants to make memories and keep the learning going, check out these awesome classroom activities.

Hold a Kindness Challenge

As a class, brainstorm a list of 100 random acts of kindness. Students can write their ideas on sticky notes (each student will only need a few to add up to 100) and then you can write them all down on a large chart to hang in the classroom. It may be helpful to categorize their ideas by school, home, community, etc. When a student completes one of the random acts of kindness, they can put a tally mark next to it on the classroom chart.

For added motivation you can have a class prize your students can win if they meet a predetermined goal of how many random acts from the list they complete.

Some easy ideas:

• Say hello to three new people
• Hold the door open for someone
• Give someone a compliment
• Leave a happy note for someone to find
• Volunteer
• Help your mom or dad
• Bake treats for a neighbor

Write Letters

Letter writing is becoming a lost art, so give students a chance to practice writing letters to friends, family, or community members with proper paper and pencil.

Compliment Circle

Organize a compliment circle where students take turns giving each other specific, positive compliments. Activities like this build confidence and reinforce a sense of belonging within the classroom. Alternatively, you can hang up pieces of paper (1 for each child) and write one child’s name on each one. Give students 5 minutes each day to write compliments on their classmate’s papers. At the end of the month give students their own papers to read and take home.

Kindness Jar

Place a jar in your classroom where students can drop in notes about acts of kindness they either witnessed or performed. Read a few notes aloud each day to celebrate and encourage ongoing kindness.