Start a Kindness Book Club: Ideas for Elementary Age Kids
By: Leah Lundquist, MMP, Director of Development and Events at Doing Good Together
Everything is better with friends and a party!
How about friends and a party and an amazing book?
As a parent, a new school year feels like a fresh start. It’s full of opportunity as the school year gears up along with a new season of activities and sports. I’m going to suggest one more thing to start this year - a big-hearted book party club!
Here at DGT, we talk about the value of putting kindness on your calendar. What better way than reading a chapter book with your kids every month and setting aside time to celebrate the book as a family or with friends?
We’ve adopted the concept of book parties from Julie Bogart of Bravewriter. It involves taking a great book and then going deeper by planning activities and food on the theme.
The goal is to pick books that highlight a social, environmental, or animal rights issue. To pick books that work as both “mirrors and windows.” Books with relatable characters to help kids grow their sense of identity. Books to nurture empathy with characters and settings outside of their experience.
“A mirror is a book that helps build a child’s identity as it reflects their own culture or personhood. Children find themselves represented along with their families and communities, and their sense of belonging grows as they recognize characters like themselves moving through the world. Books as windows, on the other hand, provide a realistic view of how others live while simultaneously situating children within the context of a wider world.”
—Amber O’Neal Johnston, Heritage Mom, author of A Place to Belong
Kindness Book Club: Ideas for Elementary Age Kids
Here’s a selection of big-hearted kindness book club party suggestions for elementary-age kids, plus related kindness activities!
We’ve provided two book selections for each topic - one that would fit lower elementary and one better for upper elementary.
Along with one of the book selections are party ideas to spark your imagination.
To get more inspiration and valuable discussion questions, search online for a teacher’s guide for each of these books!
Homelessness
Lower elementary: Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate
Create birthday bags for a local food shelf.
Tie no-sew blankets for a local homeless shelter or transitional living program.
Organize a yard sale. Consider donating the proceeds to a local food bank or homeless shelter.
Frost and eat cat-shaped cookies.
Play cat-themed games: Cat Crimes, Exploding Kittens, A Game of Cat and Mouth
Crenshaw is a name that Jackson makes up. Everyone in his family is named for someone, or something, else. Participants can share the significance of their name or a name they would make up for a pet or an imaginary friend.
Upper elementary: A Duet for Home by Karina Yan Glaser
Immigration
Lower elementary: Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
Write/draw immigration advocacy mail using DGT’s immigration advocacy printable
Call your local immigration support organization or ESL learning center and find out what your group could create and donate - canvas food totes, hygiene kits, school supplies?
Complete activities as seen in the book:
Leaf cookies
Leaf watercolor
Play dead possum freeze tag
Paint wish rocks and put them under a tree in a public space in your neighborhood
Upper elementary: Front Desk by Kelly Yang
Animal Rights
Lower elementary: Dogtown by Katherine Applegate and Gennifer Choldenko
Visit a local animal rescue organization.
Create pull toys or downsize dog biscuits for a local animal shelter.
Eat dog biscuit shaped cookies
Make friendship bracelets to celebrate this wonderful friendship story.
Upper elementary: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Disability
Lower elementary: El Deafo by Cece Bell
Upper elementary: Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
Contact your local disability day center or disability support organization to find out if there is anything your group could create and donate. We’re created journals with decorated covers and a pen set to donate to a local day center.
Stream the Disney movie. Discuss the differences.
Environment
Lower elementary: Willodeen by Katherine Applegate
Use DGT’s environmental sustainability advocacy printable for a local environmental issue that concerns you or celebrate something you appreciate about your natural spaces.
Engage in a biodiversity community science project.
Hummingbear nest painting with bubbles and paint
Create a web of life to visualize connectedness with everyone at the party and a ball of string.
Have a Conner’s Creation Station with natural supplies (and perhaps a hot glue gun) to create with.
Nature journal together
Make a trail mix to represent Aspen sticks, dilly bugs, and grubs. Serve Bugles as screecher tusks.
Upper elementary: The Last Bear by Hannah Gold
Intergenerational Friendship
Lower elementary: Tree. Table. Book. by Lois Lowry
Create forever flowers, a seasonal pennant, or meal tray placemats for a local nursing home.
Design cards for seniors through Color-A-Smile or Love for Our Elders.
Upper elementary: Not Nothing by Gayle Forman
Mental Health
Lower elementary: The Remarkable Rescue at Milkweed Meadow by Elaine Dimopoulos
Create stress balls for a local youth counseling program.
Decorate the cover of a journal to donate along with a nice pen set to a local children’s hospital or youth counseling program.
Practice some mindful breathing with the Peace Out Podcast or the books Breathe Like a Bear or Peaceful Like a Panda by Kira Willey.
Set up a “rescue relay” including two teams competing with rounds to collect strewed carrots for Winsome, make it to the other side with a stuffed bunny on your back, and carry “pups” (a ball) from one end to other between two teammates.
Practice drawing a bunny, deer, and robin - the characters in the story.
Upper elementary: The Sea in Winter by Christine Day
Indigenous and Native American Voices
Lower elementary: Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich + JoJo Makoons by Dawn Quigley
Visit a local indigenous market or restaurant.
Host a drive for an indigenous serving organization (here’s an example from Minnesota)
Whose land are you on? Find out at Native-Land.ca and then color a land acknowledgement “You are on ___ land”, free from Alphabet Rockers or make your own.
Upper elementary: Healer of the Water Monster by Brian Young
Citizenship
Lower elementary: The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill OR Sofia Valdez and the Vanishing Vote by Andrea Beaty
Use DGT’s printables to write/draw an advocacy letter about an issue you care about in your community.
Tour your state capitol building or city hall and learn who helps govern your community
Create a found poem about neighborhoods or communities using words from old magazines.
In small groups, come up with a society in which everyone can thrive. What sort of a society would it be? What type of systems would they establish? How would they resolve issues of inequality? Write a short charter for this society!
Upper elementary: Take Back the Block by Chrystal Giles
Share these book suggestions and their accompanying kindness project ideas with parents or educators you know. Looking for more ways to weave kindness into the school year? Find ideas and inspiration.
Hosting a kindness-themed book club in your home or school? Tag @doinggoodtogether when sharing your book club kindness adventures!
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