Make kindness jars

You’ll need

A4 paper
Coloured pens or pencils
Sticky tape
Craft materials (for example, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, stickers)
Clean glass jars with lids (enough for one per person)
Things to fill kindness jars
Paint (optional)
Paint brushes (optional)

Before you begin

Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Additional help to carry out your risk assessment, including examples can be found here. Don’t forget to make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.

Planning this activity

Ask everyone to bring in a clean empty jar with a lid from home. You may want to bring some spares in case anyone forgets or is unable to bring one.
You should aim to put in things that you can make at Scouts, such as things that are paper based (such as drawings, poems and letters), but remind people they could put in more items into their jar at home.

To watch in full screen, double click the video

Running this activity

Gather everyone in a circle and explain that you’re going to make kindness jars.
Everyone should get their jars ready. Make sure the jar is empty and clean, and remove any labels.
Everyone should decide who they are making a kindness jar for. It could be a family member, friend, teacher, or neighbour. What memories do you share? How do you want them to feel when they open the jar? Be creative with your kindness - you could write a poem or letter or create a picture.
Everyone should fill their kindness jar. Try putting in jokes, pictures, drawings, letters, or anything else you can think of. You should aim to put in things that you can make at Scouts, but you could put in more items at home.
Now, decorate the kindness jar. You could draw pictures to stick on the outside or paint the jars and let them dry.
At home, people could add in some objects they might like, photos of you both together, their favourite snack, or even put in some wrapped homemade biscuits.

Reflection

This activity was about improving the wellbeing of the people around us, and helping your community by doing kind things for other people. This activity made you think about what makes another person happy, and how we can remind of how much they mean to us with a simple act of kindness.

Story time

What is your favourite thing to wear?
How could you help someone enjoy something that you enjoy?

Kindness in a jar

What does kindness mean to you?
How does it feel to be kind?
How can you show your kindness?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.