A small spark of kindness started on our campus when we created the Kindness Club. Our mission from the beginning was to start a movement of kindness within our campus and extend it to our community—we wanted students to lead with kindness and to make it contagious throughout our community. Kindness Club even gives our students a platform to share kindness and amplify their stories through a multimedia project we call Kindness TV.
The Spark: Why a Kindness Club?
Over the last four years, we’ve watched our club grow and make a lasting impact. Our school counselor, Ms. Aleman, brings the SEL focus and guides our students to build connections and a community of kind learners. Then, I bring students’ digital voice to life through technology, helping them to share their ideas and positive messages with the entire campus. We use tools like Canva to create student led announcements that highlight acts of kindness and celebrate the good happening all around us.
The Kindness Club has become an essential part of our school culture. Students take ownership and pride in showing what kindness means and looks like through our Kindness TV segments, reminding our community that being kind is simple and powerful. This club has allowed us to build meaningful connections with students across our campus.
Rolling the Cameras: Bringing Kindness to Life with Kindness TV
While Kindness Club members meet to plan and work on projects that bring kindness to our campus and community, our Kindness TV crew works on producing our morning announcements. Each week, our anchors highlight the character trait of the month from our current SEL focus. They explain what the character trait means in simple terms for our K-5 students and share practical ways to model it throughout the week.
These segments are a collaboration between students, the counselor, and myself. Every year, we brainstorm new ideas that retain kindness as the driving force behind all that we do. In 2024, for example, one of our popular features was highlighting our Kindness Club by interviewing members to share updates on their projects and how they were spreading kindness. In 2025, we introduced the Kindness challenge, where students are given a simple weekly goal such as thanking three people each day. We then celebrate the students who complete the challenge on air. It’s always fun to see new segments take off, where we only get one entry a week at the start, and then we start to get more and more each week!
Digital Creation and Literacy
Creating Kindness TV has also helped students grow as digital creators. We use Canva to design our slides and record our videos that make each broadcast engaging for our k-5 students. The simple editing tools make it possible for students to take ownership of the process.
Canva has allowed us to include engaging backgrounds on which to record our video segments. Plus, since it’s so easy to edit within the software, this part of Kindness TV is completely student-led. The student editors work with me every Friday to finalize the next week’s shows before sharing them with teachers to play each morning.
Spreading the Spark: The Kindness Effect
The Kindness Club continues to inspire students in new ways. We have more interest than we have open slots, which is the best challenge to have. Fourth and fifth graders lead the club, and their enthusiasm inspires the younger grade levels to get involved. To alleviate some of this overflow, we found a way for these younger students to be involved by creating coupons they earn to be guest anchors for the week.
We have a google classroom for our club where students share their creative ideas and collaborate together. Some ideas include making a kindness jar, a sports kit for students that want to play sports, and creating a “take what you need” bulletin board. Their ideas show a genuine interest to make kindness part of our school’s daily life.
Spreading Kindness in the Classoom
The ripple effect has extended well beyond our club meetings. This club has sparked conversations around our school about ways everyone can spread kindness. Teachers often make suggestions for new Kindness TV segments or ways we can highlight students showing kindness in their classrooms. One of my favorite parts of this club is the campus-wide effort to make a positive impact together. Our students have done a terrific job growing their communication skills in this club, as well.
One key moment that sticks out to me is when our students interviewed our superintendent. They showed off their thoughtful questions, confidence on camera, and represented our campus with pride. It was a moment that showed all their work coming together, allowing them to shine. Our students live our kindness mission and it has become a mindset for our community.
Your Turn: Tips to Launch a Kindness Club with Kindness TV
Over the past four years, we have refined the process of launching a Kindness Club and Kindness TV initiative. The program gives students true ownership of their campus culture and empowers them to make a kindness difference every day. Our students take the lead while we simply guide from the side.
We began with third through fifth graders, but over time we found that focusing on fourth and fifth graders for Kindness Club and fifth graders for Kindness TV allowed us to balance the leadership and engagement of the students. Start small with one grade level, then you can invite current members to mentor the next group each spring to build excitement for the following year.
To make your launch easier, I created this Kindness Club Starter One Pager as a guide for planning your structure, recruiting students, and brainstorming ideas. The best part of Kindness Club and Kindness TV is that you’re creating an environment where students feel inspired to make a difference. Find a few passionate students and begin spreading kindness around your campus and community. Start small and watch big things happen!