What feels better than lending a hand to a good friend? Share your great ideas as you work with a partner to design a fun card game that is all about caring.

• 1.

  Read and discuss stories in which characters show kindness, caring, and sharing. Talk about caring things people do every day. With your class, brainstorm a list of words or actions that represent kind, caring acts, such as share, hug, help, and listen. Work with a partner to decide which caring words or actions to use in your game. List your choices with Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils.

• 2.

  Create your cards. Use Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils to create colorful, all-over patterns on one side of two recycled file folders. Erase to make eye-popping zig zags, dots, stripes, and plaid patterns. On the other side, measure and draw lines to divide the folders into at least 20 cards that are all the same size. Use Crayola Scissors to cut out the cards.

• 3.

  Draw and color pairs of cards. One card in each pair illustrates a person stating a problem, such as being afraid of a new situation. The matching card illustrates a caring response, such as, "I’ll hold your hand." Erase to create facial features, clothing details, and textured backgrounds.

• 4.

  Design a Caring Cards Box. With markers, create patterns, designs, and lettering on paper. Cut your paper to fit a tissue box. Use Crayola School Glue to attach your decorated paper to the box. Air-dry the glue.

• 5.

  Time to play! Place your cards face down in neat rows. Players take turns flipping over two cards. If the situation and response match, the player keeps both. If they don’t match, the pieces are returned face down. Store your Caring Concentration cards in their box. Trade games with your classmates for more challenges.

Standards

• LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• LA: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing them clearly.
• SS: Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns.
• SS: Identify roles as learned behavior patterns in group situations such as student, family member, peer play group member, or club member.
• VA: Intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas.
• VA: Select and use the qualities of structures and functions of art to improve communication of their ideas.

Adaptations

• Possible teacher resources: Picture This!: Using Picture Story Books for Character Education in the Classroom by Claire G. Stephens; Stick Up for Yourself: Every Kid's Guide to Personal Power & Positive Self-Esteem by Gershen Kaufman; Speak Up and Get Along!: Learn the Mighty Might, Thought Chop, and More Tools to Make Friends, Stop Teasing, and Feel Good About Yourself by Scott Cooper; How to Make & Keep Friends: Tips for Kids to Overcome 50 Common Social Challenges by Nadine Briggs and Donna Shea.
• In small groups, students brainstorm issues that arise when a large group of children work and live together in a classroom. When making up the Caring Concentration cards, students intentionally include cards on these topics.
• Celebrate acts of kindness in the classroom. Students observe classmates and document a random act of kindness with a 1-2 sentence summary of the act and a sketch of the performance, using Crayola Colored Pencils. Have students create a "Random Act of Kindness Box" for the classroom. Place observed acts in the box. At the close of each week, review and discuss the acts that have been documented.
• Have students brainstorm a possible class or school wide project. Invite community representatives to visit and explain possibilities. Students set up opening and closing dates for project. Students summarize their participation in the project on a class blog. Invite administrators to also contribute to this blog.
• Students create posters depicting acts of kindness. These will be posted throughout the school. Students use Crayola Magic Markers and colored pencils to create their posters.