Elementary teachers looking for lesson plans and activities for Each Kindness will find this post helpful. It includes resource recommendations, free teaching ideas, and information about the book. You’ll have everything you need to deliver engaging interactive read aloud lessons based on this story.
With themes of teasing and kindness, this Each Kindness picture book by Jacqueline Woodson is a favorite in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classrooms. It will be a big hit in your classroom too! Learn more about this book below!
Engage Your Students with Each Kindness Lesson Plans & Activities in 3 Easy Steps:
- Read a summary of Each Kindness. You can find it in the section below.
- Check out the teaching ideas for reading comprehension strategies, grammar topics and social emotional learning skills that can be taught using this children’s book.
- Download the book companion to make lesson planning simple with Each Kindness reading comprehension questions, writing prompts, teaching ideas & no-prep extension activities.
EACH KINDNESS SUMMARY
This beautifully written and illustrated book hits upon anti-bullying and kindness messages. One day, in the middle of winter, a new girl came into Chloe’s class. The principal introduced her as Maya. Maya had ripped clothing and wore spring shoes. Other students did not want to associate themselves with her. The teacher put her next to Chloe, but Chloe completely ignored her.
At recess, Chloe and her friends would laugh at Maya and her games. When Maya would ask them to play, Chloe’s group would say no. From jacks to cards, the other children would always say no. Eventually, Maya knew to just play on her own.
One day, Chloe’s teacher had a lesson about kindness. Dropping stones into water, the kindness would ripple. This prompted Chloe to reflect on how she was unkind to Maya. She set a goal to smile to Maya the next day. That is, until her teacher told them that Maya had moved away. Since Maya moved, she could not apologize. She could not try to correct her wrongs.
Chloe ended up going to a pond, where she threw in stones representing the kindness that she could have shown towards Maya. Here, Chloe showed regret of how she acted, and hopefully, how she can change for the future.
EACH KINDNESS LESSON PLAN IDEAS
Each of our 400+ Starts With a Story book companions come with a teacher’s guide to make lesson planning quick and easy, printable worksheets and digital resources that cover ALL of the standards-based reading comprehension skills.
When it comes to writing lesson plans and finding activities for Each Kindness, we’ve already done all of the heavy lifting for you.
We found this book was especially good at teaching the topics listed below.
READING COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
The text-based Each Kindness reading comprehension questions focus on:
- retelling
- analyze character
- author’s purpose
LITERATURE-BASED SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING LESSONS
We found this story to be a great SEL picture book to promote:
- bullying/teasing
- kindness
GRAMMAR, VOCABULARY & WORD STUDY
- pronouns
- verb tense
- sentence structure
EACH KINDNESS ACTIVITIES
You’ll receive all of the following resources aligned to the story:
- comprehension questions
- 30 writing prompts with themed paper
- vocabulary activities
- word study print & go activities
- ideas for grammar lessons with focus sentence printables
- social emotional learning discussion topics
- graphic organizers to target specific comprehension skills and strategies
YOU HAVE 2 OPTIONS! WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO PURCHASE THIS BOOK COMPANION?
BOOK INFO FOR ELEMENTARY TEACHERS
What are the reading levels for Each Kindness?
- Lexile® Measure: AD640L
- Guided Reading Level: M
- DRA Level: 20-24
- Accelerated Reader Level (ARC): 3.5-3.7
Who is the author? Who is the illustrator?
The book was written by Jacqueline Woodson. It was illustrated by E. B. Lewis.
What genre is Each Kindness?
It is a fiction book. You may want to check out our genre activities or read our blog post, How to Teach Genre to Elementary Students.
How many pages are in the book?
The story is 32 pages long.
