Kindness Banner

 Today is the first day of Random Acts of Kindness Week. Although, I don't believe that one week to point out kindness to my children is enough, I do believe that it is a great reminder and a fun way to spend extra attention talking about ways to be kind and how kindness acts really do spread. (as do not so kind acts.)

 To celebrate with Em's class we will make a kindness banner and kind cards. The last time we made a banner like this we called it a "wish banner" and drew and painted wishes we had. The kids and I were learning about prayer flags and this was a great activity to go along.
I thought this would be a great way to also celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Week.  I will have the kids draw pictures and write words that they feel will inspire and spread kindness.

Materials:

pillowcase (each one makes 8 flags)

scissors

hot glue

twine

permanent markers

watercolor paints

 To start this project I first put the banner together. I didn't plan on having them use the hot glue and I thought it would be nice for them to have the finished banner ready to hang after they were done with their artwork. I cut our pillowcase into 8 rectangle flags. You want to leave the top seems on the flag, but break the two that will have a side seam from the bottom of the pillowcase.

 Next, I opened each flag and laid a long piece of twine across them all. Once I had my flags spaced just right I used hot glue to attach the twine to each one and closed the flags.

 Be sure sure to close the flag while the glue is still hot. Press firmly to seal.

  Once our banner was all put together we used permanent markers to add drawings and words.

 Watercolors right on top of the drawings created a really beautiful effect.

 Isn't that beautiful!? I think this will be a great start to Random Acts of Kindness Week and a great opportunity to talk about what this week means. I found some more great ideas for this week over on Rak Week. Be sure to check it out.

Here some kindness ideas my children came up with:

1. Bring hot cocoa to the neighbors playing in the snow.
2. Feed the pond ducks.
3. Bring blankets to the animal shelter.
4. Buy dinner for a homeless person.
5. Bring a treat to their teachers.
6. Make a card for the mailman.
7. Make a new friend at school.
8. Take in the neighbors trash cans.
9. Make soup for our friends who just had a baby.
10. Make a bird feeder for "our" birds.

I think we are onto a great start!

I shared this idea over at Kiwi Crate. Check out all my full tutorials there.