Spreading the Kind Word

Remind the students about the discussion in the previous lesson about ways to stop bullying behavior and other unkindnesses at school. Pair students and ask them to come up with ways to help the bullies and the victims at school by "filling their buckets." Walk around the class and listen to what the students are talking about. Have some pairs share what they talked about.

Tell the students that in all communities some people step forward and take action to make the community better. Those people are called philanthropists because they share their time, talent, or treasure to help others. Discuss things people do in the community (donate money to a hospital or volunteer at school). Tell the students that they can be philanthropists because they have a lot of information to share with others about how to prevent bullying behavior at school.

For kindergarten and first grade:

• Tell the students that they are going to fill one another's buckets with kindness in the classroom and school. Give each student a supply of circle stickers on which they draw happy faces. They hand out stickers to others when they hear kind words or see kind deeds.
• Brainstorm kind things they can say and do for others to fill their buckets. Talk about filling the buckets of people in the class and in the school and community. Optional, provide a copy of Handout One: Bucket of Kindness. The students can wear the stickers they earn or put them on the bucket handout.
• The students may explain their project to other classes and teach them about kindness and about filling buckets with kindness around the school.

For second grade:

• Group students into teams of four. Have them first discuss unkind behaviors they see at school (without using names) to determine the issue/need. Ask them to come up with ideas for promoting kindness in their classroom and in their school/playground.
• Bring the class together to share what they discussed. Write students' ideas on the board. If none of the teams came up with the idea of making posters and displaying them around in the school corridors, suggest that idea and discuss with the students what the posters could contain.

• Help them make a plan that will teach others about bullying behavior and how to address it. The service project may include making posters with positive messages or anti-bullying tips. Or the students may perform role-plays for other classrooms. (In the role-plays, students should not perform the role of bully.) Or they may start a campaign of kindness that includes filling buckets with kind deeds. The class may do one project, or each group may do a different project.

• Reflect with students about ways to be sensitive to students' feelings as they carry out their plan.

• Supply to each team the following items: poster/construction paper, crayons, markers, colored paper, scissors and glue. Ask them to work together and come up with an idea/scenario about bullying, which they will create/draw on paper. Their drawings can vary: They can make a comics sketch, a small narration, illustrations of acts of kindness, or write a poem. Explain that these posters will be displayed in the corridors/classrooms of their school and the idea behind them is to help students prevent bullying in their school. Ask them to be as creative as they can.