68 Acts of Kindness for Kids

Everyone feels the joy that a simple random act of kindness can produce. This season, encourage your kids to spread that kindness to the people that cross their paths during the holidays – and also throughout the school year. Here’s a list packed with thoughtful and clever gestures of kindness – many of them are simple enough for the youngest of kids. Have your child try one or two today.

• Ask a stranger how they are feeling today, and actually listen to the answer.

• Ask someone how you can help them today.

• Bake cookies and deliver them to the local fire or police station.

• Bake treats for a new neighbor.

• Bring your neighbor’s trash bins up the driveway after trash day.

• Call a friend or relative and tell a joke.

• Carry someone’s groceries to their car for them.

• Collect stray carts outside the grocery store and put them back in the corrals.

• Color pictures for nursing home residents.

• Compliment a stranger.

• Decorate a bookmark to leave in a library book before you return it.

• Decorate a jar to save spare change to donate to a charity.

• Decorate hand sanitizers for nurses or teachers.

• Deliver a meal or a potted plant to a random neighbor.

• Do a chore without being asked.

• Do something nice for your siblings.

• Donate dog or cat food to the local animal shelter (call to ask them what brands they need). Many shelters want and need old blankets and towels as well.

• Donate books, clothes or toys to a children’s center, shelter or local library.

• Draw a picture for a teacher.

• Give up your seat on the bus.

• Give your teacher $5 toward classroom expenses or to help to pay for a field trip.

• Hand out a refreshing bottle of water to the mail carrier.

• Head to the park with some chalk and write sweet messages to the world.

• Hide a joke for someone to find.

• Hide a note in daddy’s wallet or mommy’s purse.

• Hold the door open for someone.

• If you see something out of place at the store, put it back where it goes.

• Invite someone to play with you (at school, at the park, for a playdate).

• Leave a note and flower on a windshield telling someone to have a great day.

• Leave a positive note on a bulletin board.

• Leave nice chalk messages on a walk, such as “Have a great day!” or “Thanks for being a great neighbor!”

• Leave tennis balls at a dog park.

• Let a parent sleep in.

• Mail a hug: Stretch your arms out wide and trace your hands, arms and head. Cut it out and fold it up to mail.

• Make a card for the bus driver.

• Make a friendship bracelet and give it to a new friend.

• Make a homemade birthday present for someone.

• Make blessing bags for the homeless (fill a bag with a reuseable water bottle, socks, underwear, gloves, toothbrush and other hygiene items they might need).

• Make cards for sick kids at the hospital.

• Make kindness cards from drawings and paintings of kid’s art. Drop a few by the nearest senior center and ask if they can use them for anyone who needs a bit of cheer.

• Make a meal or snack for mom or dad.

• Make play dough for friends.

• Make sandwiches for the homeless.

• Offer to help a schoolmate with a problem.

• Offer to take a picture of a mom and her kids.

• Paint “I love you” rocks or tokens.

• Paint a picture for a neighbor you don’t know that well.

• Pick up toys without being asked.

• Pick up trash (this could be at a park, on the side of the road, in a store).

• Play with someone new on the playground today.

• Rake leaves, shovel snow or do a little yardwork/weeding for your neighbor.

• Read your sibling a book.

• Record an “I love you” video for grandparents.

• Send a friend a positive text.

• Send a note of appreciation to a coach, teacher or neighbor.

• Send a postcard to someone you love, even if they live nearby (or in the same house!).

• Share your toys.

• Smile at 10 people.

• Start the day on the right foot. Smile and say good morning to everyone you see.

• Teach someone something new.

• Tell someone what you love most about them.

• Tell someone what a good job they are doing (such as a server at a restaurant or cashier at the grocery store).

• Text message a friend or family member today “I love you.”

• Turn a jar or can from recycling into a vase and fill with flowers for someone.

• Walk a neighbor’s dog.

• Wash the car.

• Let a stranger go ahead of you in line.

• Do something nice for yourself.