Students discuss the role that empathy and kindness has played in their lives, and the lives of those around them, and write affirming letters to someone they know.
Students will write letters full of affirmation and kindness to someone special in their lives.
This lesson was developed and made possible as part of the Inclusion Storytelling Project, a collaboration between 826LA, 826 National, and Cartoon Network’s award-winning “Stop Bullying: Speak Up” campaign. This lesson from 826LA is centered on writing as a vehicle for Social Emotional Learning and is designed to encourage youth to share their individual stories about kindness and empathy in an effort to stop bullying before it starts.
10 minutes
“Kid President” Discussion
Show one of the clips from the Kid President video collection, “20 Things We Should Say More Often” video, which names the number one thing to say as “something nice.” Give students time to react to the video, then use that last point (“say something nice”) to lead into the prompt. Consider the following questions to lead discussion:
Following discussion, let students know they will be writing a letter to someone in their lives as the objective of today’s lesson:
“Kid President challenged us to “say something nice.” Pick someone in your life and write them a letter with at least five nice things that they can read when they are feeling down.”
If you choose to not show the Kid President video to start your lesson, ask students to share why it’s important to compliment or “say something nice” to a person and that they will be writing a letter to a person in their life with at least five nice things that they can read when they are feeling down.
10 minutes
Brainstorm
Move on to the “From a Friend Brainstorm” handout. Show the example, found in the slideshow, to students to jumpstart ideas. Students will complete the brainstorm worksheet with the name of the special person they chose in the center. Students will fill the outer circle with as many nice things about that person as they can think of, making sure to at least have five. If you’re working with younger students, ask them to develop at least three separate ideas.
20-25 minutes
Drafting
It’s time to write! Display the letter prompt again and direct students to look at their brainstorm worksheet and circle the points that they want to include in their letter. At minimum, students should have 5 things circled; at maximum, they should have ten. Students will then write the letter for the person they’ve chosen on the From a Friend Letter Template. Throughout the lesson, project the “Not Sure What to Write?” slide for some sentence starters for students who may be stuck on what to write or how to start their letter.
For time or for students feeling stuck, use the Modified From a Friend Template that includes all the sentence starters.
For early finishers, allow students to pick another person to write a Kindness Letter to, or give them the option to help another student who is not yet finished with their letter.
*Note: This is not meant to simply be a fill-in the blanks and write a letter. This is just to jog any stuck brains.
10-15 minutes
Have students share their letters or general themes, either as a whole class or as in small groups. If students would like to give their letter to the person to whom they wrote, make a copy to keep and give the original back to students to share with the person they wrote about.
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