Some teachers have started using the idea of "bucket fillers" with their students. This concept is based on the book How Full is Your Bucket? for Kids. This book introduces the idea that we all carry an invisible bucket in which we keep our feelings about ourselves. When our buckets are full, we are happy and positive, when they are empty we are sad. The important part for children to know is that they can help fill buckets of family members, classmates, and friends by saying nice things and helping each other. Here is a link to a blog post that further explains bucket fillers. It also contains a link to some posters that can be used to guide discussions.

Bucket Fillers - Ron Clark style

Another place to learn about these resources is found at the Teaching Hearts Blog in this post:
Bucket Filling for the Classroom

We know there is much more to ethical literacy than simply being "nice", but these resources may help young children to learn about respect and compassion by treating others in a way that they would like to be treated.