Are you looking to create a classroom culture where kindness is centered at the core? As a primary teacher, I’ve discovered that when kindness becomes the heart of our classroom, everything gets easier – from learning to friendship-building! Today, I’m super excited to share my favorite tried-and-tested strategies that will transform your classroom culture. Plus, stick around for an awesome Kindness Bingo freebie that your students will LOVE!

One of the biggest mistakes I made when I first started primary school teaching was not spending enough time focusing on our classroom environment. I learnt the hard way that creating a kind, supportive classroom environment is essential for both learning and personal growth. When students feel valued, respected, and motivated to show kindness, by both students and teachers, they’re more engaged, cooperative, and confident. As educators, we play a powerful role in helping students understand and practice positive behavior. This post will cover strategies and resources for fostering kindness in your classroom, from daily discussions to fun, interactive activities that help students put empathy into action. Plus, at the end of this guide, you’ll find a free Kindness Bingo activity to get your students excited about contributing to a positive classroom culture.

1) Begin Each Day with a Focus on Kindness and Core Values

Something I found super helpful was to set aside time each day to discuss our classrooms core values. As teachers, our day to day schedule can be hectic and if you don’t make time to consistently have these discussions with your kids, they will often get pushed to the side.

I found starting the day with a morning meeting that includes a discussion on kindness and school values is a powerful way to set a positive tone for the day. During this time, you can highlight what kindness looks like in action, reinforce school values, and encourage students to think about how they can contribute to a respectful and supportive classroom. All you need is 10 minutes!

You can achieve a lot in 10 minutes! You may use this time to reflect on students’ behavior or hear examples of kindness from peers. Using videos, story-based prompts or engaging resources can help you introduce themes like empathy, resilience, and compassion, allowing students to explore these concepts in a relatable way.

Just a few of my favourite resources to use in our 10 Minutes of Kindness Meetings (click on the following links to view products)

SEL Book Recommendations

• Have You Filled a Bucket Today? – Carol McCloud
• Social Emotional Learning Workbook for Elementary: Navigating Emotions With Grade Level Activities (Inclusive Teaching
• I Can’t Do That, YET: Growth Mindset
• Growth Mindset Workbook for Kids: 55 Fun Activities to Think Creatively, Solve Problems, and Love Learning

Other resources

• Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Card Decks
• Kindness Stickers
• Kindness Cards

Setting aside just 10 minutes in the morning to explicitly talk about kindness and school values is time well spent. While it may seem like a small chunk of your day, this daily focus can save you time later, as students are less likely to need redirection during lessons. By building a foundation of kindness and respect from the start, you’re helping create a more focused, cooperative classroom atmosphere where positive behavior comes naturally.

2) Make Kindness Easy

Encouraging kindness doesn’t have to be complicated. With my freebie, students are challenged to complete simple acts of kindness throughout the day, week or month, making kindness an engaging and rewarding goal. Each square features an easy-to-complete action—like “Say something nice to a friend” or “Help clean up”—that students can tick off as they go.

This free Kindness Bingo activity brings kindness to a school day in a way that’s fun and achievable. It also promotes a sense of accomplishment, as students see their progress and gain positive reinforcement for completing small but impactful acts. Best of all, it helps create an environment where kindness is second nature, showing students that even small actions can make a big difference in their classroom community.

Download your free Kindness Bingo at the end of this post to get your students started on their kindness journey!

Sharing Joy Conversation Cards

Has anyone else seen the new Sharing Joy Family Conversation Cards from Big Life Journal? I’m thinking of getting them for our family— they look amazing for sparking fun and meaningful conversations. Would be perfect for family nights or holiday gatherings! 🎁❤️ If you’re interested too, check them out here:

Dream Affirmation Cards

Another lovely way to spread kindness throughout the classroom! They’re filled with beautiful, uplifting messages to help start the day with positivity and inspiration. They’ll be a wonderful addition to your routine. If you’re interested too, here’s the link:

3) Foster Kindness Through Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is a powerful tool for helping students develop empathy, self-awareness, and positive social skills. These skills are essential for building a kind and supportive classroom culture. Through SEL activities, students learn how to understand and manage their emotions, form positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.

One of my favourite ways to incorporate this into my classroom is drawing upon real life situations that students might find themselves in. For example “what if your friend doesn’t want to play with you at recess”

Together as a class you can come up some solutions to these problems.

One of my absolute favourite ways to do this in my classroom is to use these task cards:

52 Essential Social Situations – Social Skills Activities for Kids 

This resource is specifically designed for students to walk through social scenarios and come up with solutions.

By incorporating SEL into your lessons, you’re not only teaching kindness but also equipping students with skills to manage their own emotions and understand the feelings of others. This foundation in social-emotional growth will support students’ ability to show empathy and kindness throughout the school year.

4) Creating a Reward System that works

There are so many varying opinions on reward systems within the classroom. Some people believe that we shouldn’t be rewarding behaviour that you would expect from children for example, a child tidies up the classroom without being asked, or they complete their work on time without being reminded. I agree.. to an extent. I believe, along with many child psychologists, that children need to be scaffolded.

Students need to explicitly be taught your classroom’s expectations, we can’t expect them to just know. So yes maybe by the end of the year I wouldn’t be rewarding a student for using their manners, but this is something I would be thinking about at the beginning of the year when the students don’t actually know my expectations.

That’s why I find value in a well-structured reward system in my classroom. I use Student Reward Cards to recognize acts of kindness. Whenever a student demonstrates kindness in or around the classroom, I hole punch their reward card. Once all 10 points on the card have been punched, the student receives a small reward, such as a sticker or a sweet treat. Additionally, if a student accumulates 100 points (which means all 10 cards have been punched) by the end of the term, they earn a larger reward. Ideally, this larger reward would be something the whole class can enjoy, like a movie day, extended lunch, or a fun sports day—whatever the class decides together.

This approach not only encourages positive behavior but also empowers students by giving them a voice in choosing their rewards.

Reward System resources that I use

• Student Reward Cards
• Hole Punch
• Small Rewards
• Be Kind Stickers

5) Wall Displays to Promote Kindness and Positive Behavior

Wall displays are an awesome way to create a visual reminder of kindness and positive behavior in your classroom. If referred back to regularly, this can be a very effective tool.

Here are links to displays that I have used in my classroom

• EmpowerMind: Growth Mindset Poster Pack nature inspired
• Retro Groovy Growth Mindset Bulletin Board Display – ballpointjen

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Grab Your Free Kindness Bingo Activity!

Affiliate Disclaimer: Some links in this post are affiliate links, meaning that if you make a purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products and resources that I genuinely believe will benefit my readers and enhance their teaching experience. Thank you for supporting my blog!