This month is all about Love and today we are talking acts of service for kids! Use these kindness activities to help kids complete service acts for others. The ideas outlined in this post can inspire random acts of service and kindness for kids.
Acts of Service Love Language
Acts of Service” is one of the five love languages identified by Dr. Gary Chapman in his book (Amazon affiliate links) “The Five Love Languages.” It refers to a person’s way of expressing and receiving love through actions and acts of service.
Another great resource for understanding the love languages in general is the version of this book for kids: 5 Love Languages of Kids.
The book is helpful to discover the key to effectively communicating your child’s love language and empowers you to:
- Uncover your child’s unique love language.
- Foster a supportive environment for successful learning.
- Harness the power of love languages for more constructive discipline.
- Cultivate a foundation of love for your child. (Co-regulation, anyone?)
These strategies support kids and parents by nurturing the child’s primary love language and helps you build a stronger, more thriving parent-child relationship.
This sounds so great for self-regulation needs in kids, right??
While the books offer tools for each of the love languages of kids and parents, today, we are talking about the acts of service. This is important because helping kids identify acts of service they can do supports empathy and social emotional skills.
This post contains affiliate links.
We are each sharing activities based on the book The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love That Lastsby Gary Chapman. Our post today explores ways for children to show and receive love in Acts of Service. Read more about thisShowing Kids Love Seriesat All Done Monkey.
Service Idea for Kids
We used the concept of a service act to create service ideas for kids using the craft below. First, we talked about service ideas for kids and the power of showing kindness to others as a service act.
Acts of Service are evidence of love shown by servicing others. You know the saying, “actions speak louder than words”?
We show our loved ones love by doing things for them; …Washing the dishes, preparing them meals, finding that missing Teddy Bear at 2 am are ways we show our families love through service.
We came up with ways for children to show their love for friends, family, and random strangers through acts of acts of service and kindness.When a random act of kindness is bestowed, it grows love forward!Not only does the giver feel generous, giving, and significant…but the recipient of that random act of kindness feels special, cherished, and loved.
This kindness craft idea is one kids can make and then use to do acts of service.
Kindness Craft Idea
To keep track of our kindness acts, we created this kindness banner. That way, we could decide on whattask to do next. This was such a fun project to do, each step of the way! For kids that love crafts, a kindness craft hits the mark. You may find other crafts for kids that can be expanded into kindness craft ideas, too.
You’ll also want to check out our friendship activities for more ideas to spread kindness through crafts and activities.
I cut small banners from cardstock and glued on a patterned top for a touch of color.
These were taped to a long strand of ribbon and strung on our wall. We put it up at child-height so the kids could see the words of giving on each banner, and mark off the acts of kindness as they were completed.
The kids loved hearing all of the kind acts and deciding who should receive our acts of service.
After a task was completed, we stuck a foam heart sticker
on the banner. Our finished banner looked so pretty and makes a great Valentine’s decoration!
The acts of service listed below can help you come up with specific service ideas for kids.
Acts of Service Examples
You’ll find a list of service acts below, and these are great examples for kids to expand on. There are so many ways kids can serve others:
- Help family members
- Help friends
- Support neighbors
- Help other classmates in learning needs
- Help the homeless
- Support the community
- Serve the school by donating needed items
- Create a food drive for the neighborhood needy
- Find a charity and create a fundraiser
- Start a service club
- Clean up litter
- Support a church
- Older kids can attend a mission trip through a youth group
All of the types of service ideas can be expanded on. The trick here is to get creative and thoughtful. Select a group or individual that is in need and think of how you can support them.
Random Acts of Kindness for Kids
Use the service ideas below on the kindness banner craft.
Service Ideas
So what are some serviceactivities that would be great for Random Acts of Kindness for Kids? We wanted to come up with a list of service ideas that kids could choose from to serve others with kindness.
Here are some ideas listed below. Use these service ideas to fill your kindness banner:
- Collect canned goods for the food bank.
- Pick up trash in the neighborhood.
- Invite a new friend over for a play date.
- Complete household chores without being asked
- Send thank you notes to the fire department and police station.
- Hold the door for someone.
- Bring in a neighbor’s trash cans.
- Write kind notes for siblings.
- Put out birdseed for the birds.
- Bake cookies for a neighbor.
- Smile and say “Hello!”
- Do the dishes or clean up the kitchen.
- Deliver flowers to a neighbor you don’t know that well.
- Donate toys or clothes
- Give outgrown clothing to a smaller friend.
- Donate books to the library.
- Leaving kind notes.
- Wave hello to a neighbor.
- Shovel snow from a neighbor’s walkway.
- Bring a treat to school for your teacher.
- Draw a picture for the mailman.
- Preparing a meal or breakfast in bed for family.
- Help prepare and deliver a meal for a family with a new baby.
- Tell the trash collector “Thank You!”
- Write a note to Grandparents saying why they are special.
- Give neighbors some candy chocolate “hugs” and a note saying “hugs from your neighbor!”
- Draw a picture for your librarian with a note saying “Thank YOU!”
- Bring bubbles to the park and some extras to share with other kids.
- Write encouraging messages in chalk on the sidewalk to brighten someone’s day.
Have you done any random acts of kindness or acts of service with your children? What kind of activities have you done? Do you have a blog post to share that focuses on love, kindness, an activity you and your child completed together where love was apparent??
Exploring Books Through Play is an e-book with kindness activities, crafts, and games that teach empathy, kindness, and friendship. These are great activities to use in discussions on acts of service with kids!
Get your copy of Exploring Books Through Play here.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
