Committee for Children Blog

Help Stop Bullying with Kindness and Respect—Activity

Grades 3–5

Ready to involve all your students in creating a positive classroom climate? Want to get them thinking about how they can help stop bullying? This classroom activity, which is adapted from the Second Step Bullying Prevention Unit for Grades 4–5, is a great place to start.

Research has shown that one of the most effective ways to reduce or stop bullying among students is to change the way that bystanders—students who see or know about bullying happening to others—react when they witness bullying. Actively involving students in creating a positive classroom climate, where all students can feel safe and respected, is a great way to get students thinking about how each of them can help stop bullying every day.

In this activity, students will create posters showing ways they can be kind and respectful to each other every day and help stop bullying before it starts.

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Activity Instructions

  1. Before starting the activity, gather one standard-sized sheet of paper per partner-group, and colored pencils, pens, or crayons.
  2. Say: Bullying is everyone’s problem. It’s all of our responsibility not to let bullying happen and try to stop it when it does. Today we’re going to create posters to help remind us to treat each other with kindness and respect and help stop bullying.
  3. Have each group of students brainstorm a list of kind and respectful things they can do for other people every day to help prevent bullying from happening.
  4. Have each group take out a piece of standard-sized paper. Say: Now with your group, you’ll make a small “Be Kind and Respectful” poster. Include at least three ways you can do something kind and respectful on your poster.
  5. Have students decorate their posters with colored pencils, pens, crayons, or any other materials available.
  6. Display posters where all students can see them. Allow time for students to look at each other’s posters.

As an alternative, have students create electronic posters using word processing, graphics, or simple design software. Project the electronic posters for the class.

Like This Activity?

We’re adding more K–8 classroom activities to our Free Activities page all the time. They’re easy to find—just visit cfchildren.org/resources/free-activities/ for grade-specific, K–8 classroom activities that align with our Second Step Suite.


Learn more about social-emotional learning, research on the topic, and how it benefits students in the classroom, at home, and in their daily lives.