Caring Concentration
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.
Adult supervision is required for any arts & crafts project. Observe children closely and intervene as necessary to prevent potential safety problems and ensure appropriate use of arts and crafts materials. Some craft items, particularly beads and buttons, are potential choking hazards for young children. Avoid use of such small parts with children younger than 3 years. Craft items such as scissors, push pins and chenille sticks may have sharp points or edges. Avoid use of materials with sharp points by children younger than 4 years. Read all manufacturers' safety warnings before using arts and craft supplies.
Scissors—ATTENTION: The cutting edges of scissors are sharp and care should be taken whenever cutting or handling. Blunt-tip scissors should be used only by children 4 years and older. Pointed-tip scissors should be used only by children 6 years and older.
- Create a Caught You Caring Box into which you and your classmates place anonymous written observations of caring acts. Celebrate kind acts with certificates, hand shakes, high fives, or thank you notes created at the classroom writing center.
- Challenge yourself and your friends to perform 100 acts of caring during a specified time period, such as the time between Martin Luther King Day and Valentine’s Day. Create a chart to record each kind deed. Make a rule that kind acts may only be reported by others; students may not report their own. Involve families and community members in the reporting.
- Choose a class service project. Invite community representatives to visit and explain what could be done to support local food pantries, homeless shelters, or hospital pediatric wings. Collect canned goods, create food baskets, and find other ways to volunteer in your community.
- Create posters depicting acts of kindness. Use magazine illustrations and photographs, along with your own art work and slogans, to design posters to inspire caring deeds. Display posters throughout the school and community.
- Assessment: Determine whether the variety of positive behaviors on the cards indicates understanding of the caring theme. Look for more spontaneous caring behaviors among students.
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