Kindness Tags to Celebrate and Inspire Your Students’ Compassion!

If you teach elementary school–age students, you likely understand the power of recognition to foster and encourage positive behavior. Many students will go the extra mile for a “Great Job!” sticker or a verbal “Well done!” TeachKind’s kindness recognition tags are a great tool for educators to acknowledge and celebrate their students’ acts of empathy and kindness for all. And although it’s important to encourage kind behavior with praise, it’s equally important to cultivate children’s understanding that it’s the kindness, not the praise, that really matters, developing their ability to experience the intrinsic joy of helping others. You can remind students that even though they may not be recognized for every compassionate thing they do, they can still be proud of themselves for being kind people.

Do you have a student who goes out of their way to make sure new students know the classroom routine? They deserve a kindness tag! How about a student who carefully takes insects they find inside the school back outside? They deserve a kindness tag, too! You can also encourage students to recognize others’ acts of thoughtfulness and empathy by inviting them to nominate each other to receive kindness tags.

It’s more productive to cultivate kindness and compassion than it is to combat meanness and disrespect, and we can always use more kindness in and outside the classroom. These kindness tags can also strengthen social and emotional learning core competencies, such as self-awareness, social-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making, because they require students to consider how their actions affect others. They’re also a great way for teachers to foster a sense of belonging and connectedness in the classroom as a proactive approach to preventing misbehavior. You can start inspiring kindness in your elementary school–level classroom today by downloading and using these kindness tags. Your students, their families, animals, your fellow teachers, and your entire community will all benefit.