Can you think of a time you showed kindness even when it was hard? What made it hard?

Discussion question for students to explore the challenges of showing kindness.

What's the difference between feeling kind and actually doing something kind?

Discussion question focusing on the action-oriented nature of Radical Love.

Has kindness ever come back to you — like a boomerang? What did that feel like?

Discussion question regarding the reciprocity of kindness.

What would our classroom look like if everyone practiced Radical Love every day?

Discussion question to envision a classroom environment centered on daily Radical Love.

The Boomerang of Love: A Free SEL Empathy Activity for Grades 2–5

3 days ago
4 min read

Why This SEL Empathy Activity Works for Grades 2–5

This SEL empathy activity for grades 2–5 arrives when the initial energy of the new school year is settling, and students are starting to move through their days without stopping to notice the effect they have on the people around them.

This activity brings that noticing back. Ray sits in the back garden with Grandma Leila as the sun goes down, and she explains something that changes how he sees every kind thing he has done. Love multiplies when you send it out. It doesn't disappear. It comes back. Your students are already throwing boomerangs of love without knowing it. This activity helps them see that.

(The Activity - Step by Step)

A hand throwing a boomerang with the sky in the background — Love is like a boomerang.

1 Set It Up (3 mins)

Tell the class: "Ray is sitting in the back garden with his grandma as the sun goes down. He has been thinking about all the kind things he has done lately — helping Mrs Baker, listening to Nicholas, and sitting with Jack. And he asks his grandma a question: why does love feel so good when we share it?"

"His grandma tells him, because love is like a boomerang. When you throw it out into the world, it comes back to you, sometimes straight away, sometimes in surprising ways, but it always finds its way home."

Ask the class: "Has kindness ever come back to you from somewhere unexpected?"

2 Design Your Boomerang (12 mins)

Each student draws a boomerang shape on a piece of paper, or you can draw one on the board, and they copy it. It doesn't have to be perfect.

On one side of the boomerang, they write or draw: one kind thing they have done for someone recently. It can be tiny. Saving someone a seat. Saying good morning. Not laughing when someone got something wrong.

On the other side, they write or draw: one kind thing someone has done for them — something that came back to them like a boomerang, even if they didn't expect it.

Around the outside edge of the boomerang, they write one word that describes how giving kindness makes them feel.

3 The Share (3 mins)

Invite students to share just the one word from the outside edge of their boomerang.

Go around the room quickly. Listen to what fills the space: warmth, happy, proud, good, weird, shy. All of it is valid.

Close with: "Grandma Leila told Ray, the more love you send out, the more it multiplies. You are all already doing this. You just didn't have a name for it until now. That name is Radical Love."

4 The Anchor (2 mins)

Add the boomerangs to the Radical Love Wall from Week 1. By now, the wall should be filling up with sticky notes, words, and now boomerangs. Point that out to students.

That wall is a physical record of six weeks of Radical Love in action in your classroom.

Discussion Questions

Ray imagines throwing a glowing boomerang into the air and watching it come back brighter and stronger than before. Can you think of a time kindness came back to you stronger than when you sent it out?

Grandma Leila says kindness is an energy that always finds its way home; sometimes it just takes a while. Do you believe that? Has it ever taken a long time for kindness to come back?

Ray realises his inner guide nudged him to help Nicholas in class. Do you think kindness and your inner guide are connected? How?

If you could throw one boomerang of love out into the world right now, to anyone, anywhere, who would you throw it to and what would it say?

Counselor Corner

This SEL empathy activity reveals things other activities may miss. Watch for the student who cannot think of a single kind thing they have done recently. This is sometimes modesty, but more often it signals a student who does not see themselves as someone capable of giving care, only receiving it, or neither. That belief is worth exploring gently.

Also watch for the student whose boomerang of love coming back to them is something very small; a teacher saying their name correctly, someone holding a door. When the bar for received kindness is that low, it tells you something about what that student is used to experiencing. Those are the students who need the Belonging Bench most.

The question about throwing a boomerang to anyone in the world is often where students name a family member they are separated from, a friend who moved away, or someone who has died. Be present for those moments. They matter more than the activity itself.

From the Book

This activity draws from Chapter 12 of Radical Ray: Australia's Little Champion for Big Change (Book 1) — The Boomerang of Love.

Ray and Grandma Leila sit in the back garden as the sky glows with the warm colours of autumn. Ray asks why love feels so good when we share it. Grandma Leila says, "Because love is like a circle. When you give love to someone, it always comes back to you, even if it's in small ways."

Ray grins. "Like a boomerang?" Grandma Leila's eyes sparkle.

"Exactly. Sometimes it takes a while to come back, and sometimes it returns in surprising ways, but kindness is an energy that always finds its way home."

That conversation under the evening sky is the heart of everything Ray has been learning. And now your students have a name for it too.

You can find Book 1 on Amazon → meetradicalray.com/books

Week 7 drops Friday, July 31 — right in time for the new school year. See you then.

Say Hello!

Bobbi Chegwyn, author of the Radical Ray series. — Bobbi Chegwyn

Bobbi loves to connect with anyone in Ray's world — teachers, counsellors, parents, and kids.

If Ready, Ray, Go! is making a difference in your classroom, she would genuinely love to hear about it. And if you'd like Bobbi to visit your school — in person or via Zoom — she would love that too.