The Choose Kindness Game

Visit The Choose Kindess Game 2017 Update!

This new version is easier to print, has updated graphics, and corrected errors.

 

My daughter wanted to create a family night game together that would be both fun and teach a lesson. We created The Choose Kindness Game.

Our family is still young enough to look forward to family night. A “Family Home Evening,” traditionally including prayer, song, lesson, activity, and treat is part of our religious tradition. Sometimes family night includes all of these elements, but our main focus is fun activity together as a family. Ella wanted to help create a family night lesson this week and she and her Dad decided on the theme of “kind words.”

Ella, who is nearly 8, created a story to share and tasked me with creating a game. She gave me some input on the game and we used a game board from a magazine, as well as some improvised toy figures. This family game night could be easily duplicated and adjusted to the needs and ages of any family, although it is probably best suited for children 10 and younger in its current state.

Ella wrote the following story, but you could engage a child in creating their own if you wanted to present a lesson and discussion before playing the game.

—- Sample Story: We Care About Words, by Ella

John got his own new truck. It was a red dump truck and remote controlled. One day, when he was playing trucks, he got very thirsty and went to get a drink of water. While he was getting a drink, his little brother, Tim, broke a wheel off of his truck. When John came back, his black race car, his green crane, and most of the wheels off of his red dump truck were scattered on the floor.

John saw this and yelled, ‘You’re stupid!” to Tim. His mom heard this and sent John to his room for using unkind words.

John went up to his room, thought about what he said, and told Tim “I’m sorry.” —–

Discussion: We used this story as a way to talk about alternative choices John might have made in the beginning to choose kindness. We discussed how it is normal and okay to feel angry about something. What we choose to do with that anger matters. Some children can redirect that energy easily in a positive way. Others might need to count to ten or walk away to calm down. Some children are ready to solve the problem on their own, while others might need to know they can go to a trusted adult for help coming up with a solution after they calm down.

Game: Our family played The Choose Kindness Game as our activity and our 5 and 7 year-old really enjoyed it. All of the printouts you need for this game are included below. Simply right click to download. Blank Cards Templates are included to create cards to meet your family’s needs. You can easily grab a game board and pieces you have on hand from a game such as Candyland or Monopoly or print your own game board.

Treat: We ended the evening with Chewy Lemon Sugar Cookies for dessert – I thought these were a fun play on the sweet and sour theme of our evening.

Game Details: Here is everything you need to print and play your own The Choose Kindness Game! I’d love to hear some of your ideas for additional cards and solutions. You should be able to right click on the images and view them for a larger view. They are intended to print as 4×6 cards. If you have difficulty printing them at the correct size, please let me know and I will upload them to a file manager.

Visit The Choose Kindness Game 2017 Update for improved printing and graphics!