Great Kindness Challenge 2027: Kindness Week Ideas and Staff Shirts
A day-by-day plan for the Great Kindness Challenge, January 25 to 29, 2027, with one easy activity and one staff shirt for each day.
The Great Kindness Challenge 2027 runs January 25 to 29, the last full week of January, right when the post-break glow has worn off and the hallway gets a little sharp. Your counselor or PTO has probably already signed the school up. What you need now is a five-day plan that does not eat into instruction time, plus a staff shirt so the kids can tell the grown-ups are in on it too.
This guide walks through the week day by day, with one easy activity and one shirt for each day. All of the shirts are real designs in our shop, in adult sizes S to 3XL.
What the Great Kindness Challenge is
The Great Kindness Challenge is a free program from Kids for Peace, a nonprofit that started it with three schools in Carlsbad, California. Kids for Peace describes it as a bullying prevention program: for one week, students try to complete as many acts of kindness as they can from a printed checklist. It is open to every grade from pre-K to 12th grade, and a single class, a whole school or an entire district can sign up. There is also a family edition for home.
What makes it work is the Great Kindness Challenge checklist. Instead of hoping for random acts of kindness, students get a list of specific things to do, check them off, and see the total grow. Counselors often fold the week into their social-emotional learning lessons, and administrators like it because it costs nothing and involves students and staff at the same time.
The organizers say more than 22 million students and more than 45,000 schools have taken part since it began. The program runs every year in the last week of January, and their flyer says a school can also pick "the best week for your school" if late January runs into testing or a holiday. The 2027 save-the-date carries the line "Choose kind, every time!", which makes a handy theme for your morning announcements: kindness as a choice you make again and again, not a one-day event.
Before the week: a short planning checklist
- Sign up and download the checklist. The school sign-up on the Kids for Peace site gives you the kindness checklist and the rest of the toolkit. Print one checklist per student plus extras for the front office.
- Pick a staff shirt day (or all five). One shared shirt on Monday is enough to kick things off. Some campuses wear kindness shirts all week; most pick Monday and Friday.
- Order with time to spare. Every shirt is printed after it is ordered. Orders ship in 1 to 3 business days. Most orders arrive 3 to 5 business days after shipping. For shirts on Monday, January 25, count back about eight business days, which puts your order around Wednesday, January 13. Many schools are off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 18, so ordering before winter break ends is the calm option.
- Plan the count. Decide how classes will tally their acts of kindness and where the total will go up. A paper chain in the front hall, one link per act, is cheap and very visible.
Kindness week ideas, day by day
These daily themes are our suggestions, not the program's schedule. Mix them with whatever your toolkit and your counselor already have planned.
Monday, January 25: kickoff and "choose kind"
Start with a two-minute announcement, hand out the checklists and let each class pick the first act they will do together before lunch. Staff can wear Teach Kindness Compassion Confidence. It names exactly what the week is about, so it reads well in the kickoff photo and on the morning video.
Tuesday, January 26: kind words day
Set up a compliment wall with sticky notes, or have every student write one specific compliment to a classmate (specific is the rule: "you helped me with my locker" beats "you are nice"). The matching shirt is You Got This Test Day Black, with YOU GOT THIS in the middle and a ring of encouraging phrases around it (don't stress, rock the test, do your best, you can do this, I believe in you). It is easy to point at when a younger student is stuck for something to write.
Wednesday, January 27: thank the people who keep the building running
Students write thank-you notes for custodians, cafeteria staff, bus drivers and the front office. It is the act on the checklist that adults remember longest. Teachers can wear It Takes A Big Heart To Help Shape Little Minds, and the support staff being thanked may like something from our school staff shirts collection.
Thursday, January 28: kindness in class
Turn kindness into a learning habit: peer tutoring, partner reading, or a "help desk" where students who finished early help someone else. Math teachers get two good shirts here. Be Like Subtraction And Make A Difference is a math joke with a kind message, and Math Is Tough But So Are You is the encouraging line a frustrated student needs on a hard problem.
Friday, January 29: count it up and celebrate
Add up every act on the paper chain or tally board, announce the total and take a whole-grade photo. A simple, readable shirt photographs best from across a gym. For the youngest grades, K Is For Kindness works for kindergarten, and Teaching Tiny Humans And Growing Kind Hearts fits a pre-K room. For a middle school team, Middle School Teach Kindness Respect says it plainly without feeling young.
Kindness shirts by grade level
| Campus or grade | Shirt | Why it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-K | Teaching Tiny Humans And Growing Kind Hearts | Warm, short message for the littlest learners |
| Kindergarten | K Is For Kindness | Ties the week to letter work |
| Any elementary grade | Teach Kindness Compassion Confidence | Names the goals of the whole week |
| Upper elementary math | Math Is Tough But So Are You | Encouragement students can read from their desk |
| Middle school | Middle School Teach Kindness Respect | Direct, not babyish |
| Counselors and front office | Happy To See Your Face Pastel | A greeting for the first face kids see |
Want something softer for the rest of the spring semester? Learn With Joy Grow With Heart carries the same idea without the kindness week label, so it keeps working after January.
How a whole staff can match
Every design above comes in 15 garment colors, from Ivory, Blossom and Chambray to Berry, Moss and Black. A staff that wants to look like a team has two easy options: everyone wears the same design in their own favorite color, or everyone agrees on one color (Flo Blue and Watermelon both read cheerful in photos) and picks their own design.
These are garment-dyed tees, and the shade can vary slightly from one dye lot to the next. If matching color matters, collect sizes in a shared sheet and order every shirt in one cart. Prices are $29.99 for S to XL, $32.99 for 2XL and $34.99 for 3XL. Standard shipping is $9 on orders under $49, and Economy shipping is free on orders of $49 or more, so two shirts already qualify. Details are on our shipping information page.
A grade team or whole campus of 12 or more can send a bulk order request with the design, colors and a size for each person. Schools can also start from our school orders page. The timeline is confirmed with the quote.
An honest note: kindness week does not need a shirt
The Great Kindness Challenge itself is free, and the best acts on the checklist cost nothing. A staff shirt is a nice signal, not a requirement. Please do not ask families to buy shirts for this week. Our graphic tees come in adult sizes only, with no youth sizes, so they are for teachers, aides, counselors and parent volunteers. If you want students to match too, a color day ("everyone wear blue on Friday") costs families nothing and looks great in the grade photo.
If you are unsure of a coworker's size before ordering a gift shirt, our size and measurement guide explains how to measure a shirt you already own.
Quick answers
When is the Great Kindness Challenge 2027?
January 25 to 29, 2027, according to Kids for Peace. Schools can also run it in a different week that suits their calendar.
Does it cost anything to take part?
The program is free for schools. The checklist and toolkit come with sign-up.
Who can participate?
Kids for Peace lists all students from pre-K to 12th grade. A class, a school or a district can sign up, and there is a family edition for home.
Is there a theme for 2027?
The 2027 save-the-date from Kids for Peace uses the line "Choose kind, every time!" Your sign-up materials will have the full details.
Do you sell kindness shirts in kids sizes?
No. Our graphic tees come in adult unisex sizes S to 3XL.
How should staff wash these tees?
Machine wash cold, inside out, with like colors, and tumble dry low. No bleach, and do not iron directly on the print.