Kindness Inquiry-Based Learning Mini Unit

Kindness Inquiry-Based Learning Mini Unit

Hey, y'all. In the fall, we learned about gratitude through inquiry-based learning. But I noticed, we also need to do a little more research on being kind to ourselves and each other. 

I hear from teachers all the time who say their students are struggling with kindness as well. So, made a free kindness inquiry mini unit. 

We've heard time and time again that when students construct their own knowledge, the learning "sticks" better. This is one of the big ideas with the inquiry-based learning model and student-centered learning. 

So we're going to learn about being kind by getting students to define what kindness is and why it is important to be kind to our classmates, the adults in our lives, and ourselves. 

We start off every inquiry and Phenomenon-based learning unit by asking some questions about the topic. These questions are student generated but can definitely be steered a certain way by you. If my students just aren't coming up with the big idea for the unit that they need to focus on, I will spell it out for them. 

After we have generated questions and set a goal for our learning, we need to define what kindness actually is. After all, we can't research it if we don't even know where to start! We draw out and describe what kindness looks like in different settings and what kindness is not. (Hint: Kindness is not letting people bully you or walk all over you! You are never too young to set some boundaries)

After we've got a firm understanding of what kindness is and how to recognize it, we look for examples of it picture books, chapter books, in our class, etc. We analyze how we feel when someone is showing us kindness and how we feel when we are kind to others. We learn about ways we can show kindness and why that is so important in our school and community. There are even ideas for extension activities! 

It's a simple unit that can be part of your morning meeting for a week or two or integrated into your reading or social studies block. And, did I mention, it's free? Grab a copy for your class at my Teachers Pay Teachers store here. 

I hope you found some new ideas you can use in your classroom to help it run a little more smoothly. I'm always adding new resources so be sure to follow my store for the latest lessons and ideas. 

Have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you soon. 

Stay cozy,