Sharing Kindness with a Kindness Wall!

I'm very excited about my new kindness wall! My students have been so horrible lately with picking on one another and singling others out in the classroom! Yep, even special needs kiddos can do this once they get to know one another! I know there are so many great ideas out there about how to share kindness in the classroom that work well for general Ed classrooms like writing notes of kindness, compliment chains, and so on....but these don't work so well with special needs students. So I've been brainstorming ways I can get my students to spread kindness in my classroom and how I can make it meaningful for my students! 

And the "KINDNESS WALL" was born!

Most of my students don't know how to interact appropriately. They don't know how to give compliments or how to initiate play! I knew I needed to give them a jump start by providing them clues and something with pictures to help them understand! 

Here's how it works. 

I have 12 students, so as you can see I have paired two students in each of the 6 boxes. These two students will be buddies for the week, getting a new buddy each week. Every morning they will post something nice to their buddy's wall by choosing from the picture bank below the names. Those that can't read, have the picture to help them. The choices allow those that have difficulty expressing their feelings the chance to participate. The pictures choices include nice things like below and are duplicated 3 times so that one student is not limited to one, as others may want to choose the same. 

Let's play at recess
Let's have lunch
I like you
You look nice today
You're awesome
I have a gift for you
You make me smile
 Let's be friends


The students love it and it's providing them with that jumpstart that they needed! I also love that my non-verbal students have access as well!  

How do you inspire kindness in your classroom?