K-2 Kelso's Choice

To finish our theme of Friendship I am ending this month with conflict management skills for K-2 classes. I use the curriculum Kelso's Choice when teaching problem solving. The curriculum is split into 2 sections: K-3 and 4-5. I enjoy teaching students these skills because it empowers them to work through some of the 'small problems' they may have with friends. We first talk about the difference between small and big problems. I have my puppet friends (Kelso and is friend Lilly) help me out. We then think of adults who they trust that they can go to when there is a big problem.

We cover these skills over 3 lessons. With the curriculum there is the teaching of Kelso's wheel where we go over different strategies to solve small problems. Each lesson we cover a few and then practice them together so they have it down incase they may need to use it. The students understand that they need to pick 2 of the strategies on the wheel to solve their small problem first and if it still is not resolved they can come to me or a grownup they trust to help them with it. I have seen a big improvement with students working out their small problems. I pass out wheels to the teachers and have them help with some of the skills students have been learning in social skills class. The students are becoming great at solving their small problems!

Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun

In our 2nd Grade social skills classes we have been talking about friendship and how we can solve our friendship problems. I started today's lesson with having students get into small groups asking them some friendship questions:

1. Has someone ever been unkind to you? What happened?
2. How have you solved a friendship problem with someone on your own?
3. Have you ever helped someone out that was not nice to you?

After our small group discussions we listened to Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun by Maria Dismondy. You can check out her website at http://www.mariadismondy.com/. She has great books on teaching how to accept people and empower students when they deal with tough situations. When our story was done we had a group conversation about how the other students treated the characters in the book. Students really grasped the concept of "if you want others to be nice to you then you should be nice to them".

The Giving Tree

In our 1st Grade social skills classes we are continuing to talk about friendship for the month of March. One fun lesson we did was about showing kindness towards others and not expecting anything in return. A book that came to my mind was The Giving Tree by Shel Sivlerstein. The students and I had a great discussion after the story about the friendship between the boy and the tree. They described what the tree did for the boy throughout his life and came up with ways they have shown kindness in their own lives.

After our discussion we came up with a list of words that we would want in a friend and came up with our own friend 'ships'. The students enjoyed designing their own ships and coming up with words for a quality friendship.

Friendship Soup

Today our 2nd Grade social skills classes talked about Friendship. We talked about what makes a good friend and ways we can keep a friend. We watched a fun clip called Friendship Soup to get the students thinking about all the ingredients that go into a really good friendship. This clip is part of The Ned Show and that website has a lot of ideas to promote academics and character education.

Afterwards we came up with a list of what we look for in a friendship to make our own friendship soup. We came up with Friend Wanted flyers. The students are on the lookout for a good friend and in return they will receive a great friend! 

 



Stand in my Shoes!

In 2nd Grade Social Skills Classes we did a lesson on empathy and respecting human differences. We went over what the word empathy means because we did cover it in the beginning of the school year. It was a great review and many students responded by helping others and it is your friend's feelings. I explained that all of us are different just like our shoes we wear. We all checked each other's shoes out and discovered that we go a lot of places with our shoes. It was a good visual for them to realize that we come from different places. Next I read 'Stand in my Shoes' by Bob Sornson. The book went right along with our theme empathy and helping the students understand why it is important to pay attention to other's feelings. After the book we looked at several different shoe pictures I had up on the screen and created a story about the pair of shoes. Each story introduced someone that was going through a difficult time in their life. I had the students imagine how they could help that person and if they were that person what they could do. They really enjoyed this lesson and come up with some great ideas how they could make the situation better.

No two Alike!

In Kindergarten Social Skills Class we have been talking about how we are all special and unique. We went around the classroom and talked about things that we are really good at. We also shared what we need to practice to get better at. Students began to understand that we all have strengths and weaknesses. Next we read a story called 'No Two Alike' by Keith Baker. The story didn't have a lot of words to it but it created a great discussion of how things around us are different and the students could share their experiences about it. After we read our story we worked on a worksheet called snowflakes of friendship. This worksheet helped students think of different people in their life who are special to them.

The Crayon Box that Talked

In Kindergarten social skills classes we are talking about human diversity and a fun way to talk about this is to read The Crayon Box that Talked by Shane Derolf. Students enjoy this book because we talked about how boring life would be if we had just one color. Students agreed that we like to have lots of colors and all work together just like the crayons in our story. After reading our story we made our own crayons by drawing our self-portrait on them found at Teachers Pay Teachers. We will be hanging these up in our classroom and showing that life is full of colors and we should appreciate all of our differences! 

Unique Monique

Continuing celebrating human differences 1st grade classes listened to a fun book called Unique Monique by Maria Rousaki. This is a great book to let students know that it is what is on in the inside that counts. We finished by working on fun t-shirt worksheet that students could list what personality traits make them unique and special! 

Unique Monique

Kind Hearted Handprints

Our school is participating in the Guinness World Record for the "Most Kind-Hearted Handprints." Each student is to design a unique hand-print. The hand-print artwork will be displayed at the Dignity Health Hospital to break the official record for the Largest Collage of the Cut-Out Handprints! This was a continuation of the Great Kindness Challenge that our school participated in. 

I Like you Just the Way you are!

Today in 1st Grade social skills class we continued our discussion on how important we are and that we do not have to change to have others like us. We read a great book to fit in with our theme of human differences called I like you Just the Way you are by Marcus Pfister. It taught the students that we need to accept students individual qualities. After our story we made the color of me rainbows found at Teachers Pay Teachers. The students had a creative time thinking about themselves and making a beautiful picture that turned out different for each student.

Celebrating Human Differences

This month in our first grade and kindergarten social skills classes we are focusing on human differences. I have all the students close their eyes and picture everyone in the world looking like them! I give them a few minutes to think how they would feel and what they would see. Once students open up their eyes they share what they saw. Some students share how it would be confusing, they couldn't tell people apart, everyone ate the same foods and did the same thing. Students think this is really funny and agree that we like the differences from one another. We talk about the word diversity and how we appreciate the uniqueness in all of us. We do a fun activity to show how we are alike and different by having them stand up if the statement I read describes them (example if you have a brother stand up, if you have a sister stand up, if you have both stand up or neither stand up). This is a fun way for students to build connections with each other and to share some of their experiences. We end with a fun song that students always request and sing along to that talks about how important each student is. The YouTube clip is shown below! 

Pennies for Patients!!

We started our Pennies for Patients Program this week where students and staff can donate money towards The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Pennies for Patients is a great service learning project for students to learn about character education and making a difference by working together to aid thoughts of children and adults. For 3 weeks we have fun days/themes planned to get everyone excited about donating. This year we have Hello Yellow Day to raise awareness, School Spirit Day, Team Jersey Day, Crazy for a cure Hair Day, and Super Hero Day. We have students donate towards a crazy and fun activity they would like to happen at school. Some examples are school wide pajama party, cabin fever day, our principal kissing a goat, a teacher getting duct taped to a wall. Check out Pennies for Patients to learn more how your school can get involved with this great cause! 

5 Ways to Handle a Bully

To end our Bully unit in 1st grade social skills classes we talked about how to handle others if they are being mean or bullying us. We talked about the importance of what what bullying is earlier this month so students have been more aware if situations come up. Our 5 ways to handle a bully are

1. Say "Leave me Alone"
2. Say "Please Stop"
3. Play with others
4. Talk to a grownup that you trust
5. Stay calm, be friendly

We talked about each one of these strategies and when we should do them. To have students remember these 5 strategies we made our own bully bugs. Students colored and cut out circles that already had the 5 strategies written on them. They glued them together and read the strategies to each other. The students were very engaged with this and had 5 great techniques to help them.

Bad Case of the Tattle Tongue

In our 1st grade social skills class we talked about the difference between reporting and tattling. We began by talking what it means to tattle and we shared some ideas. We looked at a list to compare the two so students could understand when to report and when it is not okay to tattle on someone.

Once we had a better understanding of reporting vs tattling, we then read The Bad Case of the Tattle Tongue by Julia Cook. The students love this book because it is a great book to remember the difference between the two. I still have students come up to me and talk about the book many months after we read it so I know that this book and our discussion sticks with them with when to report.  

The Great Kindness Challenge

Our school participated in the Great Kindness Challenge this year. The students were given a 50 random acts of kindness checkoff list to do within a week. The students had a lot of fun with this and once they completed as many as they could they turned in their checkoff list to me to receive a special kindness matters certificate! I am always looking for new ideas to improve our school's climate and incorporating tolerance, respect and unity! Check out The Great Kindness Challenge to learn more information!!

The Sneetches.... Accepting our Differences

Over the past few social skills lessons with 1st grade we have been discussing bullying. Today we talked about accepting and treating each other with respect. We talked about treating others fairly and having empathy for everyone. We read The Sneetches by Dr. Seuss so students could understand how we should treat everyone. 

After our story we played a game called Sneetch Ball. The concept of the game is to have all the students say something nice about someone else. Students went into a circle and every other student received a star (I used post-it notes). They had to toss a ball to someone that had a star or did not have a star depending on if they had one and say one nice thing about them. This was a chance for students to give compliments towards others in the class. I did challenge them to give a compliment to someone each day. 

Don't Laugh At Me

Continuing with our discussions about bullying, 1st grade social skills classes learned about what bullying looks like (hurting someone's body), sounds like (hurting someone's feelings) and feels like (hurting someone's friendship). By being able to clarify different areas of bullying helped students understand the importance of reporting it to an adult. After our discussion we read the book Don't Laugh at Me. 

This was a really powerful book for the students. Some of them were able to relate to the characters in the story and how they were being treated. We talked about how the kids in the book felt. It brought a really good discussion about how we should be treating everyone with respect and act nicely towards one another. 

Students also enjoyed watching the YouTube clip of this book found here: 

Be Brave, Be Bold, a Teacher Must be Told

During January social skills classes, 1st graders have been discussing bullying. We have been going over the difference of someone being mean and someone bullying. We broke down bullying into 3 ways they can remember:

1. When mean behavior happens over and over (Could be daily, weekly, monthly)
2. When someone tries to control you (Can involve a threat)
3. They do it on purpose (not an accident)

Even though we discussed being mean and bullying are both not nice and unfriendly we talked about how they should never handle bullying by themselves and they should always tell a grownup that they trust. We listed off grownups that could help us if someone was being a bully to us or a friend. This led into our story by listening to Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns About Bullies which can be found on https://wedolisten.org/media/index.html. The students loved this book because they could see how telling a teacher is the best option to deal with bullying. 

Next the students drew a picture of themselves telling their teacher about bullying from what they learned in social skills class.