Healthy, rewarding relationships are built from empathy, respect, and communication. For girls, the ability to empathize and establish a relationship with others is a key part of growing into strong leaders of tomorrow, and the current social distancing guidelines have made that more important than ever. To continue on a path of relational growth, we’ve gathered a handful of kindness activities you can complete with girls of any age!
Temperature Check: This activity is an easy way to allow girls to share their honest feelings in a safe environment.Introducing the Temperature Check is as simple as asking, “How are you feeling today?” After asking this question, you can instruct girls to turn and talk to their neighbors or share with the whole class. Starting a troop meeting with this activity can get girls in the right frame of mind to be more kind and empathetic towards one another, and it can alert you to potential problems with specific girls. Bonus: COVID-19 has introduced temperature checks into many of our regular routines, so this is a fun way to incorporate our current events. |
Good Things: This activity is a quick way to boost the mood and open girls up to sharing personal experiences.Instruct each girl to turn to one of their neighbors and tell them something good. Encourage the girls to be creative with their “good thing,” but if they’re having trouble coming up with something, assure them that the good thing can be as small as eating something they liked for dinner last night. Once all girls have shared a good thing with their neighbor, open it up to everyone. Sharing the good thing will put the girls in a more positive frame of mind, and sharing something personal and good with others will make them feel heard and affirmed by others. |
Shout-Outs: This activity is a great way for girls to appreciate others and spread positivity.There are many ways to start a shout-out chain, but some starting points include:
This activity can be a great way to end the day. Spending just a few minutes on it at the end of a meeting can boost everyone’s mood, give girls a chance to publicly appreciate one another, and send them home riding a wave of positivity and kindness. |
Download Your Own Shout-Out Starting Phrases
Social and emotional skills are important for success in school and life, and though this year has proven to be full of unexpected obstacles for important milestones, we are working to fill a critical need that has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
CASEL defines social and emotional learning (SEL) as the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions. As the experts on girls’ leadership and development, Girl Scouts is uniquely poised to help girls boost self-confidence, relationship-building, and decision-making skills.