Kindness Castle

Create a mailbox for kind thoughts. Express appreciation for acts of kindness with notes. There’s even space for "grumpies!"

• 1.

  Everyone appreciates knowing that kind deeds are recognized! Here are some suggestions for how to build a castle mailbox for your class to share kind thoughts with each other.

• 2.

  Glue several empty boxes together into a castle with Crayola® School Glue. Make sure there are at least two "doors" in which to place notes.

• 3.

  Using Crayola Markers, draw building stones on the boxes (cover the boxes with paper first, if necessary).

• 4.

  Decorate your castle with Crayola Neon Model Magic details such as turrets, flowers, or birds. Include a dungeon in which to put any "grumpies." Air-dry your decorations overnight. Glue them to the boxes. Air-dry the glue.

• 5.

  Start sharing kind thoughts and notes of appreciation with others in your classroom! And if something is bothering you, write a note to place in the "grumpies" section.

Benefits

• • Children recognize the value of expressing appreciation to others. </P>
• • Students design and construct a castle-like structure in which to place notes of appreciation to classmates. </P>
• • Students increase kind behaviors and recipients acknowledge them with notes of appreciation. </P>

Adaptations

• • Try peer role playing. Set up situations where students read short scripts or improvise to do something negative toward a classmate. Come up with better solutions to resolve these problems. Act them out, too. Which strategies resolve issues most peacefu
• • Start a buddy system so that every student has someone with whom to discuss problems. </P>
• • Older students can start a peer counseling group. Often discussion solves simple problems by clearing up misunderstandings. </P>
• • Assessment: Expect an increasing number of notes as students realize the values of commending others for kindnesses. </P>