In our schools, we teach students to be kind and polite. We want to set the bar high so that children are friendly and kind to each other. The classroom kindness bulletin board is a wonderful tool that can be used to reinforce these behaviors throughout our classrooms.
Table of Contents
- What Makes a Good Kindness Bulletin Board?
- Examples of Kindness Bulletin Boards
- Kindness Bulletin Board FAQs
- Final Thoughts
What Makes a Good Kindness Bulletin Board?
As a teacher, you are always looking for new and innovative ways to promote kindness in your classroom. A good kindness bulletin board will improve relationships within your classroom and the school in general, and instill an ethos of kindness and generosity among the pupils. Your kindness bulletin board should be relatable for the students and present real-life examples that will allow them to develop a more positive mindset.
An attractive bulletin board display is also a great way to motivate and inspire students. Your kindness bulletin board should face your students when they are seated, and be readily accessible for walk-in traffic. Interactive bulletin boards should be at a height where students can access materials easily.
Examples of Kindness Bulletin Boards
Be a Rainbow
In many cultures, rainbows symbolize hope and better things to come. Encourage your students to be there for someone who is going through a hard time, with this lovely rainbow bulletin board.
How Full Is Your Bucket?
Based on the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? By Carol McCloud, the concept behind this bulletin board is to show children how easy it is to show kind behavior by filling the invisible ‘buckets’ of other people.
Tree of Respect
A kindness tree is a lovely, interactive bulletin board where pupils can make their own leaves to add to the tree. The ‘leaves’ can be a variety of shapes, such as hearts or hands, and can have various messages of kindness, depending on the topic you are teaching. The great thing about the kindness tree is that leaves can be added throughout the year on top of existing leaves.
Plant the Seed of Kindness
Modeling kindness on a daily basis is an important behavior to teach our students. A bulletin board encouraging them to plant the seed of kindness every day will help to spread this message within your classroom. You could match this up with a topic about gardening, or as in this example, bees and plants.
We Rise By Lifting Others
Teach your students the importance of teamwork and collaboration with this bulletin board idea, featuring the famous quote by Robert Ingersoll. Your class could make a balloon display with each person creating a balloon about helping others, which can be represented on the wall/door display.
Take What You Need – Give What You Can
The concept behind this clever bulletin board is for pupils to write positive messages for each other, and trade them for a message they themselves need to hear. You can start the board by
writing a few for the students to choose from, and the class can then take over, writing a new message whenever they take one for themselves.
Be The I in Kind
This is a great interactive kindness bulletin board that students will be keen to take part in. The word KIND is spelled out in huge letters, with the letter ‘I’ missing. Students can then stand in place of the ‘I’, therefore becoming the ‘I’ in kind. This is an ideal board to have in the corridor or even the entrance to the school so that as many people as possible have the opportunity to be reminded how easy it is to make kindness a part of your day.
Kindness is Never Wasted
Why not combine your recycling topic with a kindness bulletin board with a ‘kindness is never wasted’ slogan? Pupils can bring in recycling from their homes and spell out the words using them, creating a perfect interdisciplinary project!
Be the Reason Someone Smiles Today
Being rewarded for a good deed with a smile is a great incentive for children to go out of their way to be kind. This bulletin board will remind your class that they should be aiming every day to find a way to make someone in their life smile.
It’s Cool To Be Kind
A great option for the winter months or heading into Christmas, there are lots of visual options for this bulletin board. Penguins are always a popular choice with any age group, or you can ask your class to make their own snowmen by creating white circles with words of kindness on them.
Lend a Hand
This colorful interactive bulletin board will make a stunning visual centerpiece in your classroom. Students can decorate their own paper hand before compiling them all on a wall display.
Throw Kindness Around Like Confetti
This simple kindness bulletin board has a great visual appeal. It can be used to promote a growth mindset in your classroom and encourage pupils to be kind to as many people as possible.
Snowflakes
A snowflake bulletin board is an excellent interactive option that will make a great craft lesson too. The pupils can make their own snowflakes, from a template if needed, and then compare them to see that every snowflake is indeed unique.
Advent Calendar
A kindness advent calendar will make a fantastic whole-school bulletin board, and allow as many students as possible the chance to be inspired by it. Your class can each write an inspirational message to go behind one of the doors, for children from the rest of the school to see as they walk past.
Bee kind
Encourage friendships within your class with this bee-themed kindness board. This would also make an excellent door display if you don’t have much room on the walls in your class.
In A World Where You Can Be Anything, Be Kind
A lovely concept to teach children from an early age, this slogan should be at the center of every classroom. We have the perfect template for this bulletin board here at Teach Simple – colorful and eye-catching, it makes a perfect display for either your wall or door.
Be Somebody
Being kind to everyone is the ultimate behavior we are looking for from our class, and this bulletin board conveys this message beautifully. Having this board in your classroom will help to encourage positive attitudes from your students and may reduce instances of bullying.
Random Act of Kindness
February 17th is Random Act of Kindness day, which gives you the perfect opportunity to create this bulletin board in your classroom. The timing of this day means you could merge this with any Valentine’s activities you were planning with your class. Each envelope contains an act of kindness that the student has to carry out at some point in their day. If possible, they should try to get a photograph of them carrying out the act, and the photo can then go up on the board too.
Kindness Calendar
A great way to start the new year, the kindness calendar has a new ‘kind’ activity to be carried out each day, from helping out at home to recycling unwanted toys. You could get your class to come up with the activities at the start of the month, and then get them to report back each day on whether or not they achieved them.
Make the Days Count
A bad habit of school pupils (and teachers!) is counting down the days to the next holiday. Encourage your class to live each day to its fullest with this bright bulletin board.
Kindness Is Cool in Our School
A great bulletin board to have at the front of the school so that the kindness message gets across to all students, teachers, and visitors to the school. The school of fish contains messages written by students on how to be kind to others.
Kindness Bulletin Board FAQs
Yes, at Teach Simple we have 1000s of lesson plans and materials for you to download, including this Rainbow Affirmations Bulletin Board set. Your monthly subscription allows you to download as many lessons as you want, with no limit.
The great thing about bulletin boards is that they can be updated, without the need to be completely replaced. Many of the ideas above will allow you to add pupil content to the board as the year progresses, without starting from scratch.
Absolutely not! Although younger learners will benefit hugely from these displays as they are learning about kindness for the first time, all students can benefit from being encouraged to be kinder to each other in their day-to-day lives.
Final Thoughts
These simple but thoughtful kindness bulletin board ideas will give your class a way to be kind to each other and make it easy for students to acknowledge to others that they are being kind. By incorporating a kindness bulletin board in your classroom, you will see an improvement in positive interaction between your students and improve friendships overall.
