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.

Forgiveness Is for You: A Free SEL Forgiveness Activity for Grades 2–5

Sep 11

5 min read

Ready, Ray, Go! Snapshot Forgiveness Is for You: A Free SEL Forgiveness Activity for Grades 2–5

Why This SEL Forgiveness Activity Works for Grades 2–5

This SEL forgiveness activity for grades 2–5 arrives when the first real friendship fallouts have happened, when some students are carrying hurt they haven't told anyone about, and when the weight of unresolved feelings is starting to show up in behaviour, in withdrawal, and in the small daily resentments that make a classroom feel heavy.

Ray is sitting on the porch steps with Atlas when he tells Grandma Leila something he has been carrying for a long time: sometimes he wonders if he wasn't good enough for his dad to stay. Grandma Leila gives him one of the most important lessons in the whole series: forgiveness is not for the person who hurt you. It is for you. It is putting down a weight you have been carrying. This activity brings that lesson into your classroom in a way that is safe, gentle, and genuinely transformative.

(The Activity - Step by Step)

1 Set It Up

Tell the class the story without reading from the book:

Boy sitting on window ledge watching the rain outside

"Ray is sitting on the porch steps with Atlas when Grandma Leila comes outside with her cup of tea. Ray asks her something he has been wondering for a long time: do you think Dad ever thinks about me? His dad left when Ray was three because he wasn't ready to be a dad. And today at scouts, when everyone was talking about the father-son camping trip, the hurt came back.

Grandma Leila puts her tea down and gives Ray her full attention.

She tells him: his leaving was not about you. It was about what he was going through. You are more than enough, always have been, always will be.

Then she says something Ray has never heard before. Forgiveness is not for the person who hurt you. It is for you. When you forgive, it is like letting go of a heavy weight you have been carrying. It does not mean what they did was okay. It just means you are choosing not to let that hurt control you anymore. It is a gift you give to yourself."

Pause. Then ask: "Has anyone ever heard something like that before? Does it make sense?"

2 The Two Letters

Tell students that Ray sits at his desk that night and writes two letters to his dad. The first one is furious; he writes exactly what he feels without thinking. He crumples it up and throws it on the floor. Then he cries. Atlas comes and puts his head in Ray's lap. And when the tears stop, Ray picks up a new piece of paper and writes a second letter. This one is different.

Ask students to think of something or someone they are carrying a hurt about. It does not have to be a parent. It can be a friend, a sibling, a situation, anything that still sits heavy. They write two things, not two full letters, just two lines:

Line 1: The honest feeling. What they would say if nobody was watching. Line 2: What they might say if they were ready to put the weight down.

These are completely private. Nobody reads them. Nobody collects them. Students fold them and keep them or tear them up, their choice entirely. The act of writing both lines is the activity.

3 The Discussion

Without asking anyone to share what they wrote, open a brief discussion using only this question:

"Grandma Leila said forgiveness is freedom. What do you think she means by that?"

Let students respond to the idea rather than to their own experience. This keeps the conversation safe while still allowing the deeper thinking to happen.

4 The Anchor

Close with Ray's realisation from the chapter: maybe forgiveness isn't about Dad. Maybe it's about me.

Journal entry to close. Students write one word privately: something they would like to feel more of if they could put a weight down. Free. Light. Calm. Ready. Happy.

This one stays in the journal. Some things are worth keeping just for yourself.

Discussion Questions

Grandma Leila said forgiveness does not mean what someone did was okay. It just means you are choosing not to let the hurt control you anymore. Is that a hard idea to accept? Why?

Ray wrote his first letter in anger and then crumpled it up. Why do you think it helped to write the angry feelings down first before writing the second letter?

Atlas came and put his head in Ray's lap when Ray was crying. He didn't do anything else. Why do you think that mattered? What does it tell us about what people need when they are upset?

Ray decided to go on the camping trip and team up with Mr. Williams, even though it was hard. How do you think the forgiveness conversation with Grandma Leila helped him make that decision?

Counselor Corner

This SEL forgiveness activity may reveal things other activities miss. The two-line writing exercise is one of the most clinically useful prompts in this entire series precisely because it is private. Students are not expressing their feelings to an audience. They are meeting them honestly, possibly for the first time.

Watch the student who cannot write a second line at all. The student who gets to line two and stops. That student may be carrying something they are genuinely not yet ready to put down, and that is completely valid. Forcing forgiveness before a child is ready can do more harm than good. The counselor's role here is simply to note and hold.

Also watch for the student who writes their first line and immediately tears the paper up without attempting a second line. That urgency to destroy the feeling rather than sit with it is worth a gentle follow-up conversation.

Ray's story in this chapter is one of the most important in the series for students from families affected by absent parents, divorce, or estrangement. The line "his leaving wasn't about you" is something many children in your classroom may have needed to hear for years. It does not need to be pointed at anyone directly. Said into the room through Ray's story, it lands where it needs to land.

For students who disclose something significant through this activity, even in a private note they choose to show you, treat it as an opening, not a conclusion. What they write is the beginning of a conversation, not the whole story.

From the Book

This activity draws from Chapter 13 of Radical Ray: Australia's Little Champion for Big Change (Book 1) — Ray Learns to Forgive.

"Forgiveness doesn't mean you agree with what someone did. It just means you're choosing not to let that hurt control you anymore. It's a gift you give to yourself."

Ray looked down at his hands, her words pressing on him in a way that felt both challenging and freeing. A quiet thought nudged at him: maybe forgiveness isn't about Dad. Maybe it's about me.

That quiet thought is the whole lesson.

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

Coming next Friday — Week 14

How Small Things Matter: A Gratitude Activity

Ray notices that the biggest moments in his life are not actually the biggest ones. They are the small ones. The cup of tea on the porch. Atlas nudging his knee. A kind word from Mr. Williams. Students discover the power of noticing the small things that hold them together.

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.