This week’s theme:

Adventures in Kindness

 

This week’s colouring in sheet:

Download and print this week’s colouring sheet here.

 

Fact of the week: Kindness is “contagious” – research shows that people are more likely to do kind acts when they see others being kind as well. Kindness can also create contagious feelings of joy.

 

Activities for the week…

 

Activity 1

Think about who you’d like to thank for everything they did to help & support you, or for making you happy, last year? Make a thank you card/poster/art/poem/letter for them.

 

Activity 2

Create some New Year Resolution about kindness, friendship and gratitude. You could write them down/make an illustrated sign to bring out throughout the year to remind yourself and check how you’re doing with them!

Make a certificate to be a member of the 2021 Purple Kindness Club. The club’s motto could be the resolution you decided on.

 

Activity 3

Draw a jar to ‘store’ positive words in. write down your positive words that you could come back to and remind yourself of at a later date when you need a boost. If you find it hard to think of something positive, try making a jar like this that makes you think about a positive word starting with the initials of people you know.

 

Activity 4

Have you filled a bucket today? We all contribute to the happiness of others by the things that we do and say towards them. We are either filling or emptying their “happiness buckets” at all times, while also affecting our own happiness in so doing. Draw and fill buckets with happy objects, happy thoughts, things you know others like. Top each other people’s buckets up throughout the day. Does somebody you know like dinosaurs – draw one in their bucket. Does somebody love ABBA – sing them a song and then pop ABBA in their bucket, etc.

 

Activity 5

There’s tonnes of famous friendships where the pair look out for each other and are kind to each other…

Activity 5a:

Pooh, Piglet & Eeyore are kind to each other, especially when one of them isn’t feeling too great. Draw the things that you’d ordinarily do to help cheer up a friend who was feeling a bit sad. You could then send or show the picture to that person to let them know you’re thinking about them.

Activity 5b:

Timon & Pumbaa sing ‘Hakuna Matata’ together to symbolise their no worries philosophy that binds them together. Try playing along to the song with shakers and body percussion. Or come up with some actions for key words.

Activity 5c:

All of the characters in Toy Story are constantly helping each other out and being kind each other – learn the Makaton signs to the chorus of ‘You’ve Got A Friend In Me’.

Activity 5d:

Bill and Ted’s friendship stays true in all of their adventures, from Ancient Greece to the wild West, because they adhere to the motto: “Be excellent to each other”. Be excellent by recreating the best air guitar solos you can manage!

Activity 5e:

There’s lots of kindness on show in the TV show, ‘Friends’ – Come up with actions for the chorus to ‘I’ll be there for you’:

I’ll be there for you (When the rain starts to pour)

I’ll be there for you (Like I’ve been there before)

I’ll be there for you (‘Cause you’re there for me too)

Make a ‘band’ to recreate the rest of the song – you’ll need to play guitar, drums, bass, and do the claps!

Activity 5f:

In the book/film ‘Pollyanna’ the character hangs crystals in the bedroom window of somebody who is feeling a bit grumpy. This act of kindness completely changes the grumpy woman’s mood; she loves the sunlight shining through the crystals and the rainbows that they produce. Create your own window light catcher (would work well with sweet wrappers left over from Christmas chocolate in the gaps!) or make a rainbow with sunlight or torchlight on a CD to bring happy rays of light into your room.

 

Activity 6

The Lion and the Mouse is an ‘Aesops Fable’ about kindness. It’s hard to always be kind. Sometimes you just don’t feel like it! This fable reminds us that it’s best to be nice even when it’s hard or we don’t feel like it because we may need some kindness too someday! The moral of the story is that “No Act of Kindness, No Matter How Small, Is Ever Wasted”. Try acting out the different parts of the tale, as seen here, or coming up with actions or sound effects for it.

You could also act out the poem, ‘Alex the Alley Cat’ By Wes Fessler.

 

Activity 7

Make your own kindness story to act out using this story structure.

 

Activity 8

Although many of us are kind to the people (and pets!) around us, we often forget to be kind to ourselves.  When our thoughts become unkind it can be tricky to turn them around.

For moments like these, the Blurt Foundation has designed a pack of ‘Kind Cards Unkind Days’ – the pack of playing cards all feature a different statement so that when you pick a card at random from the pack you can read something lovely/funny/encouraging that might help you to turn your thoughts around. The cards say things like ‘‘you are even better than a chocolate bar’, ‘imagine that you are flying the batmobile’, and ‘you are shiny like a unicorn’.

Come up with some statements that you can create a card for, decorate them and keep the cards for when you might need them.

 

Activity 9

Be kind to yourself and be kind to your mind by spending a few minutes having a good giggle!

Watch this clip of a contagious smile. Does it spread to you?

Try some laughter yoga.

Watch some comedians online. Watch other people laugh uncontrollably.. Pull funny faces, make funny sounds. Mime funny actions. Throw imaginary custard pies at people in your house. Draw a smile to give to somebody else. Tell jokes. Practice tiny polite laughs and big belly laughs. Laugh like the Joker. Laugh like Mutley.

Try singing along to some funny songs or songs with funny actions (like this).

Try some funny Tongue Twisters! Start with the short, simple tongue twisters – try repeating them over & over, and try saying them faster & faster! Try some more with Anna here.

 

Activity 10

Be kind to yourself – take some quiet calm time for you to relax and be mindful, you could try some mindful drawing like this from Ailsa.  Enjoy your own company, and feel peaceful as you create. There’s no stress, it doesn’t have to be perfect or look like Ailsa’s, create whatever you want, and take as much time as you’d like. You could try mindful doodling too. You could also look at any of these mindful activities.

 

Why not take a photo of any of the activities you’ve tried this week and share it with us? You can share it on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or send it to melanie@purplepatcharts.org and we’ll put it online for you!