100 Acts of Kindness for Kids

Doing acts of kindness is one of the best activities you can do with your kids.

It’s a great way to bond as a family, a lot of fun and teaches kids about compassion and service.

Any act of kindness no matter how big or small can make a difference–especially when done intentionally.

Here are 100 acts of kindness for kids that you and your family can do together!

100 Acts of Kindness for Kids

1. Put change in a vending machine.
2. Hold the door open for someone.
3. Do a chore for someone without them knowing.
4. Tell a joke.
5. Return someone’s cart at the store.
6. Give candy to your bank teller.
7. Leave a letter in a library book.
8. Feed the birds.
9. Leave happy notes around town.
10. Put a small bin in your car to collect recycling.
11. Call your grandparents and ask them about their childhood.
12. Pick up litter.
13. Let someone go ahead of you in line.
14. Compliment a friend.
15. Wash someone’s car.
16. Write a thank you note for your mail carrier.
17. Plant something.
18. Bake dessert for a neighbor
19. Walk dogs at the animal shelter.
20. Check in on an elderly neighbor.
21. Set up a lemonade stand and donate the profits.
22. Send a card to a service member.
23. Bury treasure at the playground.
24. Set the table for dinner.
25. Leave bubbles on someone’s doorstep.
26. Put money on a stranger’s layaway bill.
27. Tell someone why they are special to you.
28. Donate outgrown clothes.
29. Buy a coffee for a stranger.
30. Pass out stickers to kids waiting in line.
31. Talk to someone new at school.
32. Write chalk messages on the sidewalk.
33. Weed or shovel for a neighbor.
34. Donate food to the food pantry.
35. Bring flowers to your teacher.
36. Tell a manager how good your service was.
37. Tape change to a parking meter.
38. Donate socks and supplies to the homeless shelter.
39. Give a lottery ticket to a stranger.
40. Call a friend you haven’t seen in a while to say hello.
41. Tape money for the ice cream truck to a friend’s front door.
42. Take treats to the fire station.
43. Read a book to someone.
44. Leave heads up pennies on the sidewalk.
45. Donate a book to a doctor’s office waiting room.
46. Tell someone how much you love them.
47. Say hello to everyone you see.
48. Make someone else’s bed.
49. Hold the door open for someone.
50. Wave at kids on school buses.
51. Sing songs at a nursing home.
52. Invite someone to play on the playground.
53. Tell the principal how great your teacher is.
54. Donate a toy to Toys for Tots.
55. Turn off the water while brushing your teeth.
56. Say thank you when you see service members.
57. Fill a kindness jar with candy for another family.
58. Make a thank you sign for sanitation workers.
59. Make a busy bag for a family with young children.
60. Bring cookies to the custodian.
61. Help make dinner.
62. Donate new pajamas for foster kids.
63. Make a get well card for someone.
64. Bring your neighbors’ garbage cans up for them.
65. Take care of someone’s pet while they’re away.
66. Leave a popcorn surprise on a DVD rental machine.
67. Share a special toy with a friend.
68. Clean up your room without being asked.
69. Tape a video message for faraway friends.
70. Leave kindness stones at the park.
71. Give a candy bar to the bus driver.
72. Send dessert to another family at a restaurant.
73. Give spare change to the food pantry.
74. Buy extra school supplies for a teacher.
75. Make muffins for your pharmacist.
76. Teach someone something new.
77. Reuse paper when you are drawing.
78. Pay for someone’s toll.
79. Give someone a hug coupon.
80. Volunteer at a soup kitchen.
81. Write a note for someone’s lunch.
82. Collect money or items for your favorite charity.
83. Donate coloring books and crayons to the children’s hospital.
84. Write a poem for a friend.
85. Ask for donations instead of birthday gifts.
86. Help someone unload groceries at the store.
87. Make a candy gram for the police department.
88. Collect books for the library.
89. Adopt an animal online.
90. Decorate tissue boxes and hand sanitizer for nursing stations.
91. Make a homemade gift for someone.
92. Clean up your toys without being asked.
93. Deliver water bottles to the homeless shelter.
94. Create activity bags for families of deployed soldiers.
95. Give high fives to a friend.
96. Make a thank you card for your librarian.
97. Dry the slides at the park with a towel after it rains.
98. Make play dough for a preschool class.
99. Send a postcard to a friend.
100. Smile at everybody. It’s contagious.

Print Your Own 100 Acts of Kindness

Ready to get started?

Download the 100 acts of kindness printable below and print it out for your kids (or self!)

Then choose a few from the list and get started. Remember no act of kindness is ever too small!

The best part about doing acts of kindness is once you start you can’t stop! They are so much fun to do!

Focusing on kindness can be life-changing for you and your family. We think doing acts of kindness as a family or group can be life changing and encourage you to join our kindness movement.

We share kindness ideas year round and encourage you to sign up for our emails or follow us on Instagram so you don’t miss any!

Join the Acts of Kindness Movement

We also help lead world-wide kindness efforts throughout the year we’d love for you to join. Read about each below and get involved with going good!

Countdown to Christmas with Acts of Kindness

Each year we share a Christmas kindness advent calendar readers can use to do a little good as the holidays approach. We have TONS of resources and lots of fun (and many free) kindness ideas for you to do.

We share a December version for those who aren’t counting down to Christmas and even have a RACK printable pack you can use to create a personalized calendar for your family!

100 Acts of Kindness Project

Each year from Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday until Valentine’s Day we join with Toddler Approved to do a 100 Acts of Kindness challenge!

This is a wonderful way to kick off the year and is very popular with families and classes. We provide lots of resources and ideas and even have a Facebook group full of participants cheering each other on from around the world.

Want even more acts of kindness ideas for kids?

No problem! We’ve got lots of acts of kindness ideas that kids can do. You’re never too young to make a difference!

About Megan Sheakoski

Megan is the creator of Coffee Cups and Crayons, a blog full of simple fun and learning. She believes that kids’ activities don’t have to be complicated to be fun and that learning is better with play.

Comments

1. Katherine Kotaw says January 13, 2015 at 8:29 pm

Hi, Megan! What a fabulous project! I adore the idea of spreading the love, especially as Valentine’s Day approaches. I’ve never really thought of Valentine’s Day as a romantic holiday, but rather, another opportunity to celebrate love and friendship of all kinds. Your kindness projects aligns with that perfectly! Number 88: Collect Books for the Library, is something I do on a weekly basis because I read so much! 🙂 As soon as summer rolls around, I can’t wait to try Number 41: Tape money for the ice cream truck to a friend’s front door! What a sure-fire way to make someone’s day. Thanks for spreading kindness all around, Megan!

• Megan Sheakoski says January 14, 2015 at 10:17 am

• jackso says October 20, 2017 at 2:49 pm

thank you for the random act of kindness because i am working with a project for random act of kindness.

Megan, what a fantastic list! Thanks so much for putting it together. Your ideas are so simple and doable. I’ve just posted it to my Facebook page, but I also printed it out to pin above my own desk as a reminder of what I can do for others each day. With one blog, you have spread kindness farther than you can imagine!

• Megan Sheakoski says January 14, 2015 at 1:51 pm

• Ar’mani Carr says November 29, 2020 at 9:07 pm

what a fantastic listing! Thank you so much for putting it together. Your ideas are so simple and doable. I’ve just posted it to my page.

I love this! I am definitely sharing this in my classroom and will be passing on…. so much of this isn’t done anymore 🙁 Not all, but there are kids don’t know what to do to help or show kindness

• Megan Sheakoski says January 17, 2015 at 9:34 pm

• Sandeep Dubey says January 29, 2020 at 7:31 am

Great ideas! I’m the co-creator of Harry Pierre & PeTunia Puddlesworth and we just shared this on our social media pages!
Good job,
Debbie Caldwell
http://www.harrypierre.com

• Megan Sheakoski says November 21, 2015 at 5:14 pm

thank you so much for sharing this with me im a 6th grader that wants to be more kind so im so glad you shared this with me

• Megan Sheakoski says December 14, 2015 at 12:13 pm

Wow this website is amazing and I think that theirs 100 deeds should be done and I think I have something to do now for my free time. This is one amazing site and i’m glade you made it.

Love this post. I really liked that post. Thanks for sharing this.
Smile at everybody. It’s contagious. I really liked that one.

• Gideon says September 25, 2018 at 11:22 am

• Megan Sheakoski says December 29, 2016 at 12:53 pm

Hi Sunseeker! I think kindness in the summer is a great idea! So far the only items I have for summer are kindness calendars I release each year. Hope that’s helpful!

• Chris says January 15, 2018 at 2:54 pm

Megan, thanks for creating such a thoughtful and beautiful resource. I’m wondering if you have a Spanish translation that I can share with some of my families.

• Megan Sheakoski says January 23, 2018 at 10:38 am

Wonderful post. I really liked that. My favorite one is:
Donate outgrown clothes.
I usually do that act of kindness whenever I have extra clothes.

Hi Megan, Thanks for sharing these great ideas. I am definitely going to perform at least 20 act of kindness from this list.

• Megan Sheakoski says November 26, 2017 at 1:24 pm

• Tevaughn riley says February 15, 2019 at 12:11 pm

hi megan! i am a student at hardin middle school and my assignment is to read your 100 acts of kindness< i really like all of them and i will do at least 10 of them.

• Pascal says November 11, 2019 at 4:15 am

Same, I’m a single dad and teaching my kids to be happy while also being nice to others is very important for me.

My kids got something similar for their homework over the summer holidays. I loved that idea. It gave them something to do and they felt great about themselves.

Thank you so much for making this available. I am sending the list to school with my daughter on Valentines Day for the teachers to challenge the kids to send love forward!

• Megan Sheakoski says February 6, 2020 at 11:18 am

Wow this list is impressive! I like the idea of leaving happy notes around town and drying the playground slides. I wanted to let you know that I featured this post on my blog if you want to check it out: https:// amysenter.com/ february- pinterest- roundup/ Thanks!

• Megan Sheakoski says February 25, 2020 at 8:42 am

The best part about doing acts of kindness is once you start you can’t stop! I completely agree with this!

• Megan Sheakoski says March 19, 2020 at 4:16 pm

• Megan Sheakoski says March 19, 2020 at 4:14 pm

• Sophie Z. says May 29, 2020 at 11:49 am

I love the Idea!Even though its Quarintien time, I would LOVE to have some fun! p.s I’m a student so don’t mind my spelling mistakes.

• Sarah says December 23, 2020 at 11:35 am

You are a savior my teacher payed 40 dollars for all the people behind her at Starbucks.Love,Sarah.Aristy