Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli is one of my favorite picture book read alouds. It’s perfect for February and Valentines, but most importantly, I love using it to address how much our kindness can impact another human being.
Mr. Hatch is a lonely, introverted character. Each day he goes through the motions of his lonely life, getting ready for his job at the shoelace factory, keeping to himself all day, and returning home to another evening alone.
…But on Valentine’s day, he receives a gift that changes everything—a huge box of chocolates shaped like a heart. Although he doesn’t know who sent him the gift, it puts an extra pep in his step. All of a sudden, he is outgoing and interacts with his neighbors. He finds ways to lend a helping hand and show kindness and concern for others. And, because of his change in actions, friendships develop, he’s no longer withdrawn, and he feels like a part of his community. All this because of a heart shaped box of chocolates!
Until—Mr. Hatch finds out that the box of chocolates was not meant for him. You’ll have to read to see how the story concludes, but I promise, you won’t want to miss sharing this one with your students! (And, it’s perfect for any time of the year, not just Valentines!)
I pair this read aloud with the Plastic Heart Activity, a tangible way to give students an opportunity to pass on kindness around our school and community. Read on for how to implement it with your students.
👉 You can do the Plastic Heart Activity with just a copy of Mr. Hatch and a bag of plastic hearts, but if you want some of the work done for you, check out my full Kindness SEL Morning Meeting Unit, complete with editable lesson plans, journal pages, and Google Slides that make implementation easy.
Kindness Unit
Build a classroom where students act with kindness and seek out ways to be more kind!
Implementing SEL just got so much easier! 25 days of lesson plans, suggested read alouds, student notebooks, models of kindness scenarios, and two kindness-themed bulletin boards ready to print and teach!
MATERIALS FOR THE KINDNESS ACTIVITY:
Decorative Plastic Hearts (like these on Amazon or found at the Dollar Store)
Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli
Note: These are affiliate links to Amazon. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Read my full disclosure here.
Can’t grab the book in time for your lesson? Although I always prefer reading aloud to my students myself, you can show the read aloud through this video on Youtube.
BACKGROUND FOR THIS KINDNESS ACTIVITY:
This lesson is an opportunity to teach your students to have an open heart so that they are better able to share love and kindness with those around them.
The plastic heart becomes a symbol for letting others know that we care about them and passing kindness on to others, rather than holding it tight all for ourselves, afraid we will never get another heart or receive another act of love and kindness ourselves. The idea is for students to pass the heart on and for it to continue spreading love.
KINDNESS ACTIVITY LESSON PLAN
1) READ ALOUD AND DISCUSS THE OPEN HEART
Read aloud Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch by Eileen Spinelli. Discuss how Mr. Hatch could choose to have an open heart or a closed heart. Receiving the box of chocolates caused Mr. Hatch to have an open heart towards the world and he was more aware and conscious of other people’s needs.
Discuss how we can choose to be conscious of other people’s needs and that if we just pay attention, we will see places where we can choose to extend kindness.
2) PASS OUT THE HEARTS
Give each student a plastic heart. Tell them that this heart represents love and kindness. “Each of you gets to choose whether or not you hold it tight or whether you pass it on to another person. This is an opportunity to tell someone what they mean to you, to brighten someone’s day, or to show someone that you recognize them, their actions, and their hard work.”
Tell students that if they choose to pass their heart on, they must tell the recipient why they are giving the heart away to them and say this statement, “This heart represents love and kindness. You can choose to hold it tight and keep it for yourself, or you can choose to pass it on to someone else. If you pass it on, you have to tell them the same thing.”
The heart can be given to anyone in the school community, at home, or outside of school. I encourage students to give it to someone outside of our classroom so that the love and symbolism spreads outside of our classroom BUT if students want to pass it on to someone in the classroom because they want to share what that friend or person means to them, this is acceptable—just imagine that the same heart will soon be passed on again!
3) REFLECT ON HOLDING VS. PASSING IT ON
Have a discussion about what it would mean to hold on to the heart tightly and what it would mean to be giving it away. Connect this back to Mr. Hatch and how he changed throughout the story. I explain to students that by holding on to the heart and not letting it go, we actually have less love. The heart is symbolic of what we have to pass on and by passing it on (with the plastic heart or through other actions), we are actually increasing the amount love and kindness in the world and creating a ripple effect (read here for another hands-on kindness activity to do with students)!
EXTENDING AND ENHANCING THIS KINDNESS ACTIVITY
You can repeat the Plastic Heart Activity throughout the year by giving students a new heart to share whenever you want to reignite the conversation about spreading kindness. It works well at the start of a new month, after a school-wide kindness event, or any time you notice your class could use a reset on how they’re treating each other.
In my kindness-themed morning meeting lessons, we discuss reasons that being kind can be challenging and come up with strategies for overcoming them. We look at how acts of kindness change the receiver’s outlook and encourage them to extend acts of kindness themselves (we call this the ripple effect of kindness). We even generate a list of thoughtful acts with our “ABC’s of Kind Deeds.” You can see 18 more kindness activities and lesson ideas here.
NEED A DONE-FOR-YOU KINDNESS UNIT?
The Kindness SEL Morning Meeting Unit is a 25 day unit for upper elementary. It includes
25 Days of Printable & Editable Lesson Plans — includes suggested read alouds, discussion questions, kindness activities, extension ideas, and linked online resources
Student Journals & Activities — kindness-related discussion prompts, self-reflection and goal setting exercises, and social emotional learning worksheets to deepen students’ understanding of kindness and empathy, with activities like Monthly Kindness Calendars & Kindness Trackers, Brainstorming & Graphing Acts of Everyday Kindness, Challenges of Kindness + Strategies for Overcoming, ABC’s of Kindness & Kind Deeds, and more!
Kindness Bulletin Board that includes important vocabulary like kindness, consciousness, patience, and generosity and inspirational quotations for a visual reminder of your kindness and empathy lessons
The Ripple Effect of Kindness Bulletin Board for student-created display
Google Slides — Teacher and student versions to implement this unit digitally or use as visual prompts and discussion starters on your interactive whiteboard
Check out the video to get a better idea of what is included!
Kindness Unit
Build a classroom where students act with kindness and seek out ways to be more kind!
Implementing SEL just got so much easier! 25 days of lesson plans, suggested read alouds, student notebooks, models of kindness scenarios, and two kindness-themed bulletin boards ready to print and teach!
Grab it in the SEL Set 1 Bundle!
Tired of SEL activities and lessons that don’t lead to real improvements?
The SEL Morning Meeting Set 1 includes five social emotional learning units focused on Belonging, Kindness, Compassion, Perseverance, and Goal Setting — designed to promote character education, community building, personal growth, and a classroom rooted in empathy and respect!
