How to Use the Kindness Tree in the Hallway

The Kindness Recorder is a job in the Conscious Discipline classroom that includes age-appropriate props like a flowerpot, kindness tree and/or kindness notebook. It helps the class focus on kind and helpful acts, operating on the Conscious Discipline powers of Attention (what you focus on, you get more of), Unity (we are all in this together) and Love (seeing the best in others). Each classroom will use an age-appropriate way to record kindnesses. At the same time, create a school-wide way to recognize kindnesses in a public space like the main hallway.

Select a symbolic way for children to record each other’s kindnesses. (It must be symbolic, not written, in order to include your youngest School Family members.) The Kindness Tree template on the Make-N-Take, available as digital downloads as part of our Premium Resource Toolkit, is an ideal symbolic form. Children put a heart on the tree to signify each kind act.

Additional ideas for your Kindness Recorder can be found in the “Classroom Jobs” chapter of the Creating the School Family book, on the Make-N-Take, available as digital downloads as part of our Premium Resource Toolkit, and in the instruction booklet included with the School Family Job Set. “Looking for Kindness” on Kindness Counts supports the Kindness Recorder.