LESSON PLAN

Grade: K-6 Lesson Title: Compliment Cards Duration : 20-30 Mins

Red text indicates possible teacher script - feel free to alter as your class may need different language or more
explanation.
Overview of lesson

This lesson serves as an introduction to students creating weekly compliment cards for their
classmates. This lesson may need to be referred back to as time passes, but it is the aim of this activity
to create a classroom culture that surrounds a positive and productive routine of seeing the best in
everyone around them. Students will understand how their words and actions affect their classmates,
and how being a positive influence can change how their peers view themselves.
Learning Objectives Teaching Strategies
“I can”… ● Talk to students about compliments and how to
● Express positive emotions about classmates appropriately use them
through words and pictures ● Utilize classroom discussion when asking about how
● Understand that what I say and do affects compliments make them feel
how other people view themselves ● Get students to write out compliments in a variety of
● Stay on task and complete the required work ways, including poetry and pictures
● Circulate, observe and encourage
Learning Resources / Material & Equipment
● Coloured paper cut into 4” by 8 ½ “ - enough for all students
● Writing and colouring pencils
● You can also use specific Identity Texts from the Literature Section of the Multicultural Classroom resource pack to
give students characters to work off of (eg. Lila and the Crow)
Assessment (formative/summative)
Formative:
Students will be assessed on whether or not they hand in their Compliment Cards each week - they will not be marked on
spelling or grammar as some may only be pictures. This assignment can count as participation or can act as practice for
students still learning to write.
Lesson Procedures

Introduction (5-10 mins.): including new vocabulary

● Optional: begin the class by reading ‘Lila and the Crow’ and discuss how the negative things Lila’s classmates said
affected her. Get students to think about how the story may have been different if her classmates had said nice
things at first.

● Ask students to think about times when someone has said something nice about them, whether it be about their
appearance or personality or talents, and get them to say or think about how that made them feel.
● Then, ask students to think about times when they have said something nice about someone else and how the
other person reacted and how that made the student feel.
○ These nice things that people may have said about you, or that you have said to someone else, are called
compliments. Compliments are nice things that we tell other people when we want them to know that
they are special to us. Compliments do not have to be about the way that someone looks though, they
can be about that person’s personality, how they act, the nice things they do, or talents that they have.
Even if we do not get along with someone all of the time, we have to remember that they are good
people and we can still recognize the good things that they have done.
Body (10 min.): main activities with differentiation

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 ● Hand out the slips of coloured paper and tell students that they are going to write a meaningful compliment about
their favourite character from a book, movie or story that their parents may have told them, as practice for the
activity (optional: tell students to write their compliments about Lila from ‘Lila and the Crow’). The compliment
does not need to be completely written out: if they need to draw a picture or can only think of a few words then
that works as well, as long as the compliment is meaningful and would make the person feel good.
● Students will have 5 minutes to complete the practice activity, but the actual activity can take longer depending
on how much class time there is weekly.
● Once the students have finished the practice compliment cards, then the weekly activity will be explained:
○ Each week, we are going to make these compliment cards, but about your classmates. I will choose
someone randomly at the start of the week, and when we have free time we will work on compliment
cards for that person. These cards can be full sentences, a short poem, a picture showing something nice
about that person, or words that remind you of them.
○ Once you have done your card, you will give them to me, and I will put them up on one of the blank
bulletin boards for the week. At the end of the week, whoever was picked will have their picture taken in
front of the board, then we will take down the cards and that person will get to take them home to keep.
○ If it is your week to receive the compliment cards, then you can spend that time making a name tag for
the bulletin board and it will go in the center of the board.
● After answering any questions, this is when the first student will be selected. If time permits, students can start on
their compliment cards for that student. If not, hand out the papers anyways and get students to store them in a
place that they will not go missing (you may want a designated place in the classroom for the unfinished cards to
go).
Closure/ Reflection ( 5 min.)

● Allow students to put away their cards then ask them to tell you what a compliment is, and if they can provide an
example of a compliment.
● Tell students that they do not have to wait to tell their classmates compliments if they have one for a future card
because that compliment can make someone’s day better.
Possible Pitfalls and Preventions
● A possible issue that could arise with this activity is that some students may not necessarily get
along, and this may make them feel like there is no way that they can compliment that person.
It is important that in the lesson that we tell the students that even though you do not like
someone, that you can still see the good things in them. This may mean reinforcing that
everyone has special talents; so those students can try to focus on the interesting things that
that person can do.
● Another issue may be that some students hyper-focus on a student’s appearance and only
compliment that, and while those are also important we have to try to steer students towards
compliments that focus on the student’s personality. If the appearance-based compliments are
meaningful and appropriate then there should be no reason to not allow them to be posted,
but these should be approached on a case-by-case basis.
● One final issue may be that there could be students who speak and write very little English, and
while this can be approached by allowing them to draw pictures, we should also allow these
students to write out compliments in the language that they know best. If they are able to,
then they could translate or explain it to their classmates in order to have an exchange of
language and ideas between the students.