Random Acts of Kindness and Special Needs Teens

When the world is good, our students receive many random acts of kindness. People may reach for things that are out of reach. Or, they might alter a game to accommodate our student’s needs. They might go out of their way to include our kids in their activities. And, that is good.

However, we can also help our students feel the empowerment that comes from being the giver of a random act of kindness and there is no better time to do that than during this month’s National Random Acts of Kindness Week.

Using This Free Lesson

The lesson this week provides a story about how two teens hatched a plan to provide an act of kindness to another girl who had been treated cruelly. Read this story to your students and allow them to answer the questions included in the lesson.

Next, ask students to brainstorm kind acts that they might gift to people they know or even to strangers.

Finally, have your students pursue a random act of kindness and record it on the chart provided.

You can extend the lesson by having students record their acts of kindness anonymously on colorful slips of paper, cut-out hearts, etc., and posting them on a bulletin board. Keep collecting the kindnesses and allow a few minutes each week to read about the goodness that your students gifted to the world.

For More Information

This lesson idea came from the Daily Living Skills Workbook Building Character. Like all the books in the series, it is written on a 3rd/4th grade level with airy pages and bullet-point information. Yet, the series honors teens’ sensibilities and humor while meeting federal mandates for transition skills and Indicator 13 requirements. For more information on the books go here!