Kindness Resources For Schools
VIDEOS
Elementary School
- Make a Difference: One boy comes across spare change, and uses it to make an elder woman’s day.
Kindness Boomerang: What goes around comes around. This charming short film depicts the ripple-effects of kind acts.
Caine’s Cardboard Arcade: How a 9-year-old’s creativity inspires a flash mob of kindness.
Kind Kids Club: How one first grade classroom incorporates kindness into their classroom learning, and how the ripples of their acts spread across the school. (Note: The video is an overview of a school’s kindness activities, so for younger students, best to show only the small clips of the specific acts of kindness.)
For older elementary students, see additional videos in Middle/High School
Middle/High School
- Teenage Kindness: On an early-release day, four teenage friends spread smiles on their way home from school.
Free Hugs of Juan Mann: One man’s mission to spread smiles with free hugs.
Teenage Football Players Conspire To Do Something Unexpected: A middle school football team came up with a surprise play-- one from which a player remarks, “I went from being somebody who mostly cared about myself and my friends to caring about everyone and trying to make everyone’s day and everyone’s life.”
Thai Kindness: How one man’s small, everyday acts of kindness make a world of difference.
Teen Battles Cyberbullying with Positive Post-It Notes: When Caitlin Prater-Haack received a Facebook message with hurtful words, she didn’t retaliate, she got positive… and her ripples of kindness spread across the school, city, and the globe!
Mr. Happy Man: Johnny Barnes stood at a street corner for 6 hrs/day telling people he loved them-- the video captures stories from people his "brotherly love" has influenced.
Giving: How one man’s act of kindness to a young boy ripples out and back in unexpected and unpredictable ways.
How He Crossed the Finish Line: One Olympic athlete and his father demonstrate teamwork, hard work, perseverance, and the deeper values behind success.
The Koh Panyee Football Club: The kids of Koh Panyee-- a floating village in the middle of the sea-- does not have an inch of soil. Yet a group of boys show how anything is possible as they work together and start their own football club.
Also see “Compliment Guys at Purdue” and “Love Note Writer” in College/University section.
Also see “Make a Difference,” and “Kindness Boomerang” in Elementary section.
College/University
- Compliment Guys at Purdue: Two college students spend their free time seeing and voicing the bright side in people.
22 Random Acts of Kindness: How he spent his 22nd birthday.
Students Stepping Up The Kindness: Kansas State University students surprise their classmates on the first day of the semester with outrageous random acts of kindness.
365 Grateful: One woman practices gratitude everyday for a year, and shares what she learns.
Love Note Writer: A woman's journey to spread love notes around SF, both by herself and with her family.
Also see “Make a Difference” in Elementary section.
Also see “Free Hugs of Juan Mann,” "Thai Kindness," “Mr. Happy Man,” "Giving," and “How He Crossed the Finish Line” in Middle/High School section.
SONGS AND MUSIC VIDEOS
- Empty Hands Music songs: Listen and/or download songs from Empty Hands Music
- Planting Seeds (audio only)
Being Kind
To My People
Keep Loving
Grateful
Give Love: Music video by MC Yogi
Playing for Change: A moving remix of the popular 'Stand By Me' performed by more than 100 musicians from Tibet to Zimbabwe.
Sound of Music Train Station: A flash mob of 200 people inspire trust in the human spirit by surprising train station passerby with a well choreographed dance to The Sound of Music’s “Do-Re-Mi” song. - Planting Seeds (audio only)
TEACHER RELATED INSPIRATION
- A Teacher In Tokyo: "There's an expression I love: 'Let people live in your heart.'" These are the words of Toshiro Kanamori, a 4th grade teacher whose class goal is to understand how to be happy.
Mr. Wright’s Law of Love: Amid exploding pumpkins and bed-of-nails experiments, Jeffrey Wright's physics students step out of class with a stillness of heart-- one that soaks in deeper lessons from their teacher's way of life.
A Letter From Your 14-Year-Old Self: "I'm just a regular teacher. Who happened to assign a rather different assignment." For over 30 years, Mr. Farrer has been delivering letters to his former students, 20 years after they write them-- with powerful responses.
The Impact of a Caring Teacher: Have you had a teacher who has profoundly affected your life? Based on a true story, this commercial, by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, beautifully depicts one such case: the story of Edwin and Mrs. Chong.
FURTHER RESOURCES
- KindSpring Stories, Kindness Ideas (particularly for Elementary, Teens, College/University), and 21-day Challenges.
KarmaTube: an inspiring video portal dedicated to multiplying acts of kindness, beauty, and generosity.
Teaching + Transformation, a bi-monthly newsletter that highlights learning through the lens of inner transformation.
Other related Circles on Education.