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Positive thinking leads to greater achievement. That's what researchers at Stanford University found. They gave a math test to 240 children ages 7 to 10. Some of the children believed they were good at math. They did better on the test. Brain scans revealed that positive thinking motivates the brain's memory center. That boosts problem-solving skills.

The study shows that believing you can become good at something improves your ability to learn. Lang Chen is the study's lead author. He says, "A good attitude opens the door to high achievement, which means you then have a better attitude, getting you into a good circle of learning."

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Positive thinking leads to greater achievement. That's what researchers at Stanford University found. They gave a math test to 240 children ages 7 to 10. Some of the children believed they were good at math. They did better on the...

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A fun way to put yourself in a good mood is by creating a mood board, sometimes called a vision board. What's that? "It's a collage of anything that inspires you, makes you happy, or speaks to you," says Susie Moore, an author and life coach. Moore often guides people through the process at mood-board-making sessions. At the end of a session, each person has built a collection that puts him or her in a positive frame of mind.

To create your own mood board, you'll need a corkboard and pushpins. Poster board or cardboard, with glue or tape, work too. You'll also need old magazines, greeting cards, and photographs. Go through them, cutting out images for your board. Use your instincts to choose what works best. "Anything that makes you feel good, use it," Moore says. "When you see it, you'll know."

Here, TFK's Shay Maunz uses Moore's tips to create a mood board and offers tips on how you can make your own.

One place to start is with some of your favorite things. I used photos of my favorite food, watermelon, and my favorite animal, penguins.

You might use your mood board to set goals for things you'd like to accomplish. I want to read at least 30 books this year.

Think about a place that makes you feel safe and happy. Maybe it's your classroom, a playground, or a cozy corner at home. You can put photos of that place on your mood board, or choose photos that remind you of it. I used this image of West Virginia, where I grew up.

This is also a good time to think about what might make you happy in the future. I included a photo of the beach, because I hope to go there soon.

Not everything on your mood board has to serve a purpose or be connected to your life. Choose some images just because you like them. Every time I look at this photo, it makes me smile.

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A fun way to put yourself in a good mood is by creating a mood board, sometimes called a vision board. What's that? "It's a collage of anything that inspires you, makes you happy, or speaks to you," says Susie...

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Time for Kids: Show Respect, Model Kindness

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Time for Kids: Show Respect, Model Kindness

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Understanding and inclusion start with you. TFK talked with CARYL M. STERN, president and CEO of UNICEF U.S.A. and coauthor of a book called Hate Hurts. Here's her advice on how to handle hurtful comments and find common ground.

JESSIE ENGLISH FOR UNICEF USA

Be a part of creating the world you want.

That means thinking and planning ahead. Do not wait until hate happens to talk about hate.

There's no time limit for responding to a hurtful comment.

You don't have to respond right in the moment. Sometimes, you are so angry or hurt or shocked that you can't respond. Or sometimes, it would be such a public response that you would humiliate the offender. That might not be the best way to get them to hear what you have to say. Make a plan as to when you are going to respond, and follow through with it.

Open the ears of the listener.

Start by pointing out why you're bothered and how you feel. Make sure the person knows that they matter enough for you to talk to them.

Use I statements, not you statements.

Explain to the offender that you are not talking about what they said. Explain that you are talking about how what they said made you feel. You are not trying to get them to defend what they said. You are trying to explain to them why it was hurtful. You can't necessarily change a person in one conversation. And you can't ask someone to change who they are. But you can ask them to change the way they act around you.

Learn how to ask questions.

I consider there to be two basic diversity skills. One is how to ask questions, the second is how to give answers. You want to be able to ask about things you don't understand, but you need to know how to ask in the right way. Part of that comes from learning how to give answers and finding the right vocabulary.

Learn about cultures you know nothing about.

As a class project, look at what's happening in your community to find out what's different from what you normally do. What festivals, concerts, or plays are happening? How many different houses of worship are there? See if each of you can get the adults in your life to take you to one of them.

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Understanding and inclusion start with you. TFK talked with CARYL M. STERN, president and CEO of UNICEF U.S.A. and coauthor of a book called Hate Hurts. Here's her advice on how to handle hurtful comments and find common ground. Be...

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On August 30, college-sports fans celebrated College Colors Day. A fourth grader at Altamonte Elementary School, in Florida, wanted to show support for the University of Tennessee (U.T.) Volunteers. He didn't have one of the team's signature × signature ALPAMAYOPHOTO/GETTY IMAGES closely associated with someone or something (adjective) Kelsey always wears her signature red bandanna on the first day of school. orange shirts. So he drew the U.T. logo on a piece of paper. Then he pinned the paper to an orange T-shirt. At school, other kids teased him for wearing it. "He was devastated," his teacher Laura Snyder wrote online on September 4.

Snyder's post caught the attention of U.T.'s president. On September 6, the university announced that it would use the student's design for its official T-shirt. After this statement, the college store's website had so many visitors that it crashed. "My student has definitely felt the love and support," Snyder wrote online.

TIM GANGLOFF-CSM/SHUTTERSTOCK

For a Cause

As of mid-September, more than 50,000 orders had been placed for the T-shirt. The student's family had decided to donate proceeds from its sale. The money will go to Stomp Out Bullying. That's a national organization. It opposes bullying and cyberbullying. The group has helped more than 5 million students resolve × resolve charity × charity SDI PRODUCTIONS-GETTY IMAGES to settle or find a solution to (verb) To resolve their argument, the students met with the school counselor. bullying situations. "It's the most incredible thing for this family to give to a JGI/JAMIE GRILL-GETTY IMAGES a gift for those in need; the act of giving to someone in need; a group that gives to those in need (noun) Joseph donated his old clothes to charity. ," Ross Ellis told TIME for Kids. She started Stomp Out Bullying in 2005.

STEVE MEGARGEE-AP PHOTO

Ellis says kids are finding ways to make the world kinder. "Kids just don't want bullying in their schools anymore," she says. "They're tired of it."

Ripple Effect

How can people prevent bullying? Ellis says they can become upstanders. An upstander supports someone who's being bullied. Also, schools can do antibullying activities throughout October, which is National Bullying Prevention Month. Stomp Out Bullying posts them online.

In many schools, kindness is promoted beyond October. Joanne Miller is a fourth-grade teacher at Pride Elementary School. That's in Deltona, Florida. She told TFK that her class wants to "start a kindness revolution." Miller's students call themselves the Kindness Squad. They wear special T-shirts. They greet other kids with kind words on Friday mornings. Deliana Black is on the Kindness Squad. She's 9. "The small things we do for our class and our school make everyone happy," she says.

COURTESY JOANNE MILLER

"One act starts a ripple effect," Miller says. "If one person does something, then the next person does something, and the next." Ellis, of Stomp Out Bullying, hopes the ripple effect started by the U.T. shirt will continue. The money donated from its sale, she says, "will go far in helping kids who haven't been helped yet."

Standing Together

The kindness revolution is happening in high schools, too. Lou Riolo is the principal of Carmel High School. That's in New York. This year, he asked the graduating class to be silent when senior Jack Higgins took the stage at graduation. Jack has a form of autism. It makes him oversensitive to sound. Students gave Higgins a silent standing ovation.

CARMEL HIGH SCHOOL

TFK spoke with Higgins's mom, Barbara. "It just takes a little bit of kindness and compassion [to think] about someone else," she says. "If everybody did that for a minute a day, the world would just be amazing." -By Ellen Nam

Looking for the cover quiz? After you sign in, click on the Resources tab to search Teaching Resources for printable versions of all our quizzes.

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On August 30, college-sports fans celebrated College Colors Day. A fourth grader at Altamonte Elementary School, in Florida, wanted to show support for the University of Tennessee (U.T.) Volunteers. He didn't have one of the team's signature orange shirts. So...

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One night, Christine Carter was sitting with her daughter in her lap. They were making a list: "Three Good Things of the Day." Her daughter, who was braiding Carter's hair, said, "Mom, this is going to be one of my three good things."

Making a list was their way of reflecting on things they were grateful for. It's a technique based in an area of research known as the science of happiness.

Carter is a sociologist at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies how schools and families can foster foster to help something grow or develop (verb) The principal worked to foster a positive environment at the school. positive emotions and help kids lead healthier lives. This has become especially important during the pandemic, which has made many kids feel isolated. "Most kids don't know this, but they're grieving," Carter told TIME for Kids. "They've missed out on important events. Many have lost people in their lives."

Finding the positive doesn't mean never feeling sad. It means understanding that feeling sad is natural, and that it passes more quickly if we can notice the good things in life. "We can practice bringing happiness to ourselves," Carter says. "It's like putting money in the bank. We can be ready to cope with hard times in the future."

How to Be Happy

A key step toward happiness is learning how to describe emotions, even negative ones. Feeling sad? It's better to embrace embrace to accept willingly or eagerly (verb) She embraced recycling after learning about how much plastic wound up in the oceans. the emotion than to ignore it. Ask yourself: "What do I feel? Where in my body do I feel it? What color or shape is it?"

Expressing gratitude is also important, Carter says. Let's say you often bicker with a brother or sister. Reflect on why you're grateful for that person. Remember the good times. This makes it likely you'll get along better tomorrow.

But the surest way to happiness is kindness. Helping others gives life purpose, Carter says. Even more, "We feel a sense of connection and love," she adds. "Our nervous system feels safe when we're connected with other people."

Here are some things you can do every day to be happier.

Take deep belly breaths.

Write down things you're grateful for.

Talk with a friend.

Do something kind for someone.

Exercise, eat well, and get enough sleep.

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One night, Christine Carter was sitting with her daughter in her lap. They were making a list: "Three Good Things of the Day." Her daughter, who was braiding Carter's hair, said, "Mom, this is going to be one of my...

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Time for Kids: Studying Kindness the Science behind it

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Time for Kids: Studying Kindness the Science behind it

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Imagine you're part of an experiment. There are two groups. Members of the first group get $10 to spend as they wish. Members of the second group also get $10. But they must use it to help others. Which group would you rather be part of? Which would make you happier?

Researchers at Kindlab study the results of experiments like this. Kindlab is part of a group called Kindness.org. The Kindlab team is interested in the effect that helping others has on the person doing the helping.

Kindlab's goal is to use scientific data to spread good deeds around the world. Oliver Curry is a research director at Kindlab. "The more we understand why people are kind, the better we'll be able to . . . make the world a kinder place," Curry told TIME for Kids.

JAROSLAV WINTER

Gathering Data

In 2018, Kindlab published a report called "Happy to Help?" The group analyzed 27 experiments by other researchers. The experiments compared how people felt when they helped others with how they felt when they didn't. "What we found when we aggregated × aggregate GI/JAMIE GRILL-GETTY IMAGES to add up (adjective) When we aggregated our earnings from the fundraiser, we found we had raised more than $500. the results is that helping does make you happy," Curry says.

COURTESY KINDNESS.ORG

Anyone can help with the work Kindlab is doing. How? By becoming a volunteer scientist. Volunteers gather data for research projects. Kindlab has more than 400 volunteer scientists in 45 countries. Jaclyn Lindsey is Kindness.org's chief executive and cofounder. "We're committed to putting out content and programs that are credible × credible PETER ROSE/EYEEM-GETTY IMAGES believable (adjective) Maria said her dog ate her homework, but Mrs. Mable did not find the story credible. ," she says. Studying data helps the group make sure it can do that.

Volunteer scientists helped Kindlab and Harvard University on a project. The project evaluated the costs-in terms of money, time, and effort-of a kind act. Then it looked at how much the act would benefit others. Volunteers filled out surveys to rate the cost and benefits of good deeds. Researchers analyzed the data. This helped them determine which deeds were most cost-effective × cost-effective MASKOT-GETTY IMAGES producing the best results at the smallest cost (adjective) A bicycle is a cost-effective method of transportation. (see "Good Deeds").

Kindlab will use the data to create a database. It will be the first database of recommended acts of kindness. It will help people make informed choices about their kind actions.

Engaging Students

Kindness.org is also working to spread empathy in classrooms. This year, the group launched a program called Learn Kind in 741 classrooms worldwide. It encourages students to take a scientific approach to kindness. "We're giving students a few ideas of kind acts to try and asking them to report back on the experience," Curry says.

BARBARA EVANS

Kushagra Kumar, 9, is from Houston, Texas. He has enjoyed being part of Learn Kind. For one activity, he was asked to find out whether quarantine would limit kindness. But he found that quarantine gave him more chances to help others. "I sent video messages to my grandma telling her that I love her," Kushagra says. How did he feel after the call? "Happy!"

COURTESY NAMRATA SINGH

In May, Kindness.org published a report. It listed the most cost-effective acts of kindness during a pandemic. These actions can be taken while social-distancing or in quarantine. Volunteer scientists helped the group put the report together. They rated how much effort goes into a specific act. They also rated how beneficial the act is. The list shown here is from Kindness.org. It features the top-five easiest and most effective acts of kindness.

1. Say thank you to someone who made your meal possible.

2. Cover your mouth when you cough.

3. Be on time for video calls.

4. Tell the people you love how you feel about them.

5. Video call your parents or grandparents.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly noted that the Learn Kind curriculum is in more than 450 schools worldwide. It is in 741 classrooms worldwide.

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Imagine you're part of an experiment. There are two groups. Members of the first group get $10 to spend as they wish. Members of the second group also get $10. But they must use it to help others. Which group...