Low Level Thinking and Questions

What is kindness? Who is kind in the story?

Kindness is being nice.

Higher Level Thinking and Questions

How can we show kindness to people who are in need?
How can we get involved in helping people outside our classroom who need help?
Why do we need to show kindness to people who are not kind in return? Do we need to?
Are animals able to show kindness?

Unfortunately, many teachers do not get past the lower level thinking questions and neither do the students.

I would suggest getting involved in some sort of service/charity project. This may be fundraising or it may be recycling at home. I like the site DoSomething.org which has ideas for project students can get involved in with your help.

An effective unit opener then might introduce students to someone who has helped others. For example, Ryan’s Well Foundation was founded by a kid who decided to raise money to build wells in Africa for kids who did not have drinking water anywhere near their school. They have a film about how Ryan raised money which you might want to show. Or try and get a guest speaker (live or via videoconference) from any charitable organization to speak to your class about the work they do.

If you inspire students to get involved then you have a purpose as you go through the unit.

You might also consider getting pen pals for your students so that they experience making friends and showing kindness first hand as they go through unit. Letter writing also aligns with most states’ second grade standards.

For other unit opener ideas see the Kindness Unit Openers page.