Kindness Activity for Kids Compli-Mats

Teaching our primary students about compliments is highly important in our classroom. Of course it’s always easier to point out what we don’t like…But, we have found we have to purposefully teach our first graders how to see the good in one another by pointing out what they do like.

So, we came up with an idea to teach our kids how to pay compliments to their classmates.

Introducing…Compli-Mats!

Get it?

Compliments written on a 12×18 piece of construction paper, about the size of a place mat.

Compliments + Place mat = Compli-Mats!

The kids eat it up. 🙂

We quickly printed a clip art heart onto a piece of paper and enlarged it on our copy machine so it fit onto 12×18 inch construction paper. You could do the same, but honestly you could draw a heart, have them draw a heart, cut a heart, have them cut a heart, or just give them a piece of paper and call it a day.

Really, that’s not the important part. What’s next is the real deal. 🙂

This quote not only goes for teachers, it goes for friends too. It matters how we treat each other and it’s important that children learn young how their words can make a positive or negative impact on those around them. We do a lot of things in our classroom, but MEAN is not one of them.

Here’s what we do about once a month, if not more…

Just depends if and when they need it.

We have been known to Drop Everything and Read Compliment from time to time.

First, we brainstorm quickly up on our Promethean Board. We determine what a compliment even is.

We made up a silly chant..

A compliment…A compliment…What is a compliment?

It’s not a question.

It’s not a story.

It’s not all about myself.

It’s saying something from my heart,

that’s nice to someone else!

We didn’t give them a ton of ideas because we truly wanted them to come up with their own. But, some of our kids need the print model and we need to provide the support. Upper grade kids may be good to go.

Next, we send them to their own desks to start writing on their own Compli-Mats. First stop, compliment yourself. No, it’s not all about themselves, but we chat about how loving yourself is important too. So, we ask them to write something about themselves that they really like. Plus, it gives us a quick assessment to see that they understand compliments before they begin. In other words, if someone writes “I like the beach.” we can have a quick “Come back to the Compli-Mat Light” moment before the whole class gets “I like the beach.” on their mats too.

Next, it’s the teacher’s turn! We keep them in their seats as we walk around, borrow their pencil and announce our compliment to them, then quickly jot it on their Compli-mat. “Colby thinks of others first.” “Kelsey is a determined reader.” Really, whatever comes to mind in the moment. It’s from the heart. 🙂

Once they have seen a class full of compliment models from the teacher, we establish these Compli-Mat Movement Guidelines to be sure it isn’t a free for all and mats are missed along the way. We highly suggest this with the younger students, just speaking from “free for all” experience. 🙂 We have tables in our classroom, so they rotate table by table, walk around and write on each friend’s mat, then all sit down at that table to let the teacher know they are ready to move on. You could hear a pin drop…They are so into it and that makes our hearts very happy. 🙂

Spelling is developmental…Just the way we like it. 🙂

Not because we need compliments or anything, but just because the kids beg to write on a mat for their teachers too, we leave one for ourselves out on our desk and call kids over to write on our Compli-Mats. The kids eat it up!

Here’s the BEST part!

Once we have made our way around the entire classroom, which probably only takes about 15 minutes nowadays, they end up back at their own table, with their own Compli-Mat. You should see them beam! We want them to read all their friends words, so we trick ask them to jazz up their Compli-Mat {insert jazz hands here}.

We set out markers, gel pens, colored pencils…Really whatever we’ve got and feel like setting out that day. If we have extra time, we let them sit with partners and read their Compli-Mats too. Then, they take them home to share with their families, which has gotten us teachers a few compliments from parents too.