Looking for a simple, meaningful Social Emotional Learning activity that helps students understand how words can hurt...and help?
 
The Bruised Apple Kindness Activity is a low-prep, hands-on SEL craft for Kindergarten to Grade 3 that uses a powerful food-based metaphor to teach empathy, kindness, and emotional awareness. Students learn that people may look fine on the outside while feeling hurt on the inside and that kind words can help repair those hurt feelings.
 
This activity works beautifully any time of year and is especially meaningful during Valentine’s Day, Kindness Week, or community-building moments when classrooms focus on care, inclusion, and connection.
 
What’s Included:
Happy apple template (what we see on the outside)
Bruised apple template (what we don’t always see on the inside)
Heart “repair” pieces to show kindness and care
Student sentence strip with fill-in-the-blanks
Word bank to support early writers and language learners
Clear student directions (print-and-go and sub-friendly!)
 
Teacher guide with:
Discussion prompts
Trauma-informed teaching notes
Bulletin board ideas
A simple kindness extension for the week
 
How It Works:
Students create a flip apple craft:
The outside apple shows how someone might look.
The inside apple shows how they might feel.
A heart repair reminds students that kind words can help.
Students reflect using the sentence:
“When someone feels ____, kind words can help them feel ____.”
 
This activity encourages empathy and awareness without requiring personal sharing, making it safe, inclusive, and developmentally appropriate.
 
Perfect For:
Social Emotional Learning (SEL)
Kindness & empathy lessons
Valentine’s Day classroom activities
Morning meetings or circle time
Trauma-informed classrooms
Bulletin board or hallway displays
Building positive classroom culture
 
Help students look beyond the outside and choose words that heal. This activity is easy to prep, and flexible enough to use all year long.