This project invites Pre-K learners to explore the question, “How can our class help others feel happy and welcome at the farmers market?” through making and sharing simple gifts for neighbors. Over nine short Thursday sessions, children create kindness cards, paper flowers or hearts, friendship bracelets or yarn loops, mini kindness rocks, and small goodie bags, using art-making, dramatic play, and emotion-sharing to practice kindness in real community settings. The purpose is to help learners communicate care, work together, and notice how giving to others makes them feel. Their work culminates in a real exhibition at the farmers market table, where families and volunteers support students in handing out their creations to the community.

Learners will explore the question, “How can our class help others feel happy and welcome at the farmers market?” by making and sharing simple gifts such as kindness cards, paper flowers or hearts, friendship bracelets, painted kindness rocks, and small goodie bags. They will practice using art materials and simple media tools, creating props and crafts, and engaging in guided dramatic play to act out giving, welcoming, and thanking others. Learners will build communication and collaboration skills by taking turns at Happy Helpers Station Day, talking about roles for sharing their work, and participating in the farmers market exhibition with teacher and family support. They will reflect in a circle after creating by naming or pointing to emotion pictures to show how it feels to give to the community and to respond to others’ artwork and kindness.

Learners will create simple kindness cards with drawings and short happy messages, small paper flowers or hearts, friendship bracelets or yarn loops, painted kindness rocks, and small goodie bags with student-made art tags to share at the farmers market. Throughout the project, they will also make props, puppets, and costume pieces for short dramatic play about welcoming others, using gestures, words, and emotion pictures to practice what kindness looks and feels like. As the weeks continue, students will add media artworks such as photo signs, class collage displays, or simple digital/slideshow images that show their work and help visitors learn about their school. By the end, the class will present and give away these handmade items at their farmers market table with support from adults.

Start with a “Happy Helpers Station Day” where children rotate through short, hands-on stations to make tiny gifts like kindness cards, paper hearts, simple yarn loops, or painted kindness rocks for the farmers market table. Gather everyone in a circle to introduce the question, “How can our class help others feel happy and welcome at the farmers market?” and show photos of a farmers market and people giving or receiving kind gifts. Invite learners into brief dramatic play by practicing how to smile, greet a visitor, and hand over a gift, using simple props they help create. End by having children point to emotion pictures or share a word about how it feels to give something kind to another person.

Host a simple kindness table at the local farmers market where children, with teacher and parent volunteer support, hand out their cards, paper flowers or hearts, friendship bracelets or yarn loops, kindness rocks, and small goodie bags to visitors. Add a small display board with photos of the making process and dictations of children’s words about how giving kindness makes people feel happy and welcome. Invite learners to greet visitors, point to emotion pictures, and share a short reaction about their artwork or dramatic play experience. After the market, celebrate back in class with a circle share about what they noticed and how it felt to give to the community.