If you’re looking for a fun and easy activity to make with kids, you’ll love this DIY Kindness Tree! It’s simple to make, and kids will enjoy using it to note acts of kindness they see or do themselves!
The Purpose:
The Kindness Tree holds the hearts of kindness that are witnessed when an act of kindness is done by others. You see someone being kind – they get a heart on the tree.
The Background:
Before I go on, let me be totally transparent that this is by no means my original idea. We got the idea from Conscious Discipline, a program introduced to us through our children’s Pre-K school. My youngest came home from school at the end of his year and asked to make a Kindness Tree for our home. I didn’t know what that was, but it sounded great!
He had been the “Kindness Tree Helper” at school that week. He explained how the Tree worked, and really enjoyed his job so he wanted our family to participate. I loved that this had an impact on him, and I definitely wanted to encourage his enthusiasm for kindness. We made a plan for what he envisioned in the project, and our list of materials and got to it.
Supplies Needed
- flower pot
- floral foam (not pictured)
- hot glue
- small (thin) sticks or small branches
- clothes pins
- paint or decorative items of choice
- paint brushes
- paper confetti or rocks
- paper hearts
*If you do not want to make your own tree form, you could buy a pre-made tree at a craft store.
Steps to Your Own Kindness Tree
1. Paint or decorate your flower pot. Let it dry completely.
2. We chose to also color our clothes pins. Do this while your flower pot is drying.
3. Cut out paper hearts with a heart-shaped punch form, or by hand.
4. Once the flower pot is dry, hot glue the floral foam to the inside.
5. Arrange your sticks and/or branches in the floral foam at different heights and angles to leave space for the clothespins.
*Note: Whatever branches you choose, try to pick ones thin enough for a clothespin to close entirely and still be able to hold the paper hearts.
6. Fill the remainder of the flower pot with the paper confetti, rocks, or other filler.
7. Find a place in your home that the tree can be seen and remembered. Place the paper hearts and clothespins next to the tree.
Pin this idea for later!
Originally published July 7, 2016
Lacy Arthur
Friday 8th of July 2016
What a great message/lesson for kids!!
Kristie
Friday 8th of July 2016
Love that he wanted to promote kindness! Do you write your acts of kindness on the hearts or do you just clip on a heart when someone is kind to you?
It's a lovely idea!
Aubrie
Friday 8th of July 2016
We acknowledge the specific act of kindness when we place the heart, but we don't write on them. But, if you wanted to laminate your hearts, or find some that could dry erase, that would be a great addition!