Want to make the holidays meaningful for your family? This free printable Random Acts of Kindness Bingo game is a great way to get everyone involved in giving thanks and spreading love…any time of year!
It’s November! Despite the fact that the days are growing shorter and colder, November is one of my favorite months of the year. It’s my birthday month (wahoo!), and I’m a serious fan of Thanksgiving.
Poor Thanksgiving. Smushed between the much flashier holidays of Halloween and Christmas, Thanksgiving often gets overlooked. But, really, Thanksgiving has so much going for it. It’s not commercial. There’s no stress about buying things. It’s just about being with family, giving thanks for all the good in the world, and eating really good food. Never skimp on the really good food. It’s all the best parts of holiday fun without all the stressful craziness other nearby holidays seem to have in spades.
Thanksgiving is important, though. It’s an opportunity to teach our kids about gratitude and to get them in the spirit of giving before all the “getting” of Christmas begins.
Each year, I try to make the spirit of Thanksgiving last all November long. Last year, My kids and I made a gratitude wreath where we wrote one thing we were grateful for each day on a leaf until Thanksgiving day. It was a great way for me to talk to my little ones about all of our blessings.
This year, we’re doing something similar, but I also wanted to add an element of giving to our Thanksgiving. After some late night brainstorming, I came up with the idea of combining random acts of kindness with the game BINGO. I just introduced the idea to my boys, and they are really excited to get started.
Here’s what we’re going to do:
Each day, we’ll pick one random act of kindness to do together (inspired by this list of 100 ideas as well as some of our own thoughts). Once we’ve completed our chosen task, we’ll color in the box for that act of kindness. Each time we get bingo, we’ll celebrate with a simple fun family activity. Our ultimate goal is to get “blackout” by Thanksgiving.
I chose our random acts of kindness based off of things that I felt like my small children (ages 4 and 2) could participate in and find meaningful. Here they are:
- Draw pictures and send them to grandma and grandpa.
- Leave bookmarks in your favorite books at the library. (printable here)
- Host a play date for friends.
- Make a card or gift for your teacher. (printable here.)
- Pass out stickers to kids waiting in line.
- Leave bubbles at the park with a note for whoever finds it. (printable here.)
- Give high fives and say thank you to the bus driver.
- Donate food to the food bank.
- Donate old clothes and toys.
- Let someone go ahead of you in line.
- Make a homemade gift for someone.
- Feed the birds.
- Hold the door open for someone.
- Make a thank you sign for sanitation workers.
- Pay for the drive-through order behind you.
- Write a thank you note to the mail carrier and place it in your mail box.
- Leave inspiring notes/quotes on cars in a parking lot. (printable here.)
- Write chalk messages on the sidewalk for neighbors.
- Send a post card to family or friends that live far away.
- Leave a quarter in a candy machine.
- Smile and say hello to everyone you see for a whole day.
- Try to pick up at least 3 pieces of trash everywhere you go for a whole day.
- Make playdough to give to a friend.
- Take treats to a neighbor.
If you want a cute card to go with any of your acts, I love THIS ONE from Inspiration Made Simple.
I’ll keep you posted on how our random acts go. Little Man gets really excited about scavenger-hunt-type games and anything where he gets to check things off a list (the apple doesn’t fall far). I’m looking forward to doing these activities together and making our November meaningful.
If you want to join in the fun, you can print your own Random Acts of Kindness Bingo game by clicking the image below. I’ve included a PDF with all the acts we plan to do, and I’ve also included a blank one if you want to choose your own random acts of kindness.
Download your free Random Acts of Kindness Bingo printable game.
If you don’t get around to doing this for Thanksgiving, never fear. It also works wonderfully as a challenge for Christmas, Valentine’s Day, or really any time of year!
As Aesop said, “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.”
Happy Thanks-giving!
What are your favorite ways to make Thanksgiving meaningful?
I regularly link up here.
I love love love this idea. The bingo aspect is a great way to get the whole family on board too. 🙂
Thanks, Elizabeth! I’m hoping it will be a fun, visual way for my boys to see the good they are doing in the world.
This is a great idea to get the kids involved into doing act of kindness.. & with bingo it makes it even more fun! ?
Thanks, Michelle. I’m all about making everything possible into a game. If I can help my boys have fun, they are more willing to participate, and then they will learn the lessons that come along with the service…I hope.
So adorable and thoughtful, I love finding things like this to save for when mine is older!
Thanks, Allison! I hope that you are able to use it in the future. We’re having such fun with it already.
Such a beautiful idea! I am pinning this too!
This is the cutest idea ever! My son would have so much fun doing this.
Thanks, Amber! My four-year-old made a card to take to his preschool teacher today, and he was SO excited to give it to her. This afternoon, we’re going to make a thank you sign for the garbage man before trash collection day tomorrow. We’re having way too much fun with it, too!