Kindness Bingo: An Empathy-for-All Spinoff of the Classic Game
Games are a great way to engage children and motivate participation, and when they promote empathy and compassion for others, everyone wins! That’s why we created Kindness Bingo. In this spinoff of the classic game, children are prompted to complete acts of kindness for others. Some of them are big tasks, like going “trash fishing” in a park or at another site in nature, which helps clean up the environment and prevent animals from becoming injured by garbage. Others are simple, like coloring in the picture on the back of the game sheet. There are activities that teach children to be good citizens, like collecting items to donate to local animal shelters, and there are even activities to encourage healthy snacking, like trying a new fruit or vegetable or making vegan “ants on a log.” Everyone benefits from Kindness Bingo.
Longer activities teach children to persevere toward a goal and to enjoy the rewards of delayed gratification, which is important in today’s on-demand world. You could take children to the library to check out their favorite books about animals, have a craft day to cut out shapes for windows to help prevent birds from crashing into them, or go outside together to write kind messages with sidewalk chalk.
This game is perfect for homeschoolers or as a take-home activity to be completed over the course of a week or longer—spring and summer breaks are great opportunities for students to practice empathy away from school. Not only does Kindness Bingo keep children engaged and having fun, it also helps develop their social- and emotional-learning core competencies, such as self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making, by encouraging them to consider how their actions affect others.
Kindness Bingo is inclusive, and since it doesn’t require kids to compete with each other, everyone’s a winner! Once players get bingo, you can award them a kindness recognition tag while reminding them that it’s the kindness, not the tag, that matters and to be proud of themselves for being kind, even when it seemingly goes unnoticed. Encourage them to complete all the activities and even to come up with some of their own to keep the game going. This is sure to kickstart a lifelong habit of being mindfully kind to others and encouraging their friends and family to do the same. Download Kindness Bingo for free:
