As part of our bully prevention initiative at Woodland, I've been sending out monthly tidbits on how teachers can incorporate little things here at there to aid in this school wide goal. Here are this months resources:
February
Bully Prevention Resources
Accepting
how we are all unique and different!
When we accept our personal differences, and the differences
of our peers without judgment, there is less pressure to fit in and more
confidence in being ourselves!
This confidence and acceptance is another piece to bully
prevention as it teaches our kids that each individual is unique and we need to
celebrate those differences and unique qualities. This learning and practice of acceptance will
help students to adapt to situations when they DO have differing opinions,
perspectives, viewpoints, appearances, likes, etc. And make them more capable
of having positive and impactful interactions with their peers now and in the
future.
Language Arts:
·
Balloon Burst Stereotypes: Kids work as a class and in small groups to
discuss the words stereotype, tolerance and fairness. They will also have a chance to “burst”
stereotypes by popping balloons associated with common stereotypes. Full lesson can be found here: http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/03/lp294-01.shtml
·
Read Thank You, Mr.
Falker by Patricia Polacco to emphasize differences in academic
abilities. Stress the following points:
o 1.Everyone is working on
something
o 2. Everyone’s abilities are
different and varying
o 3.Everyone will get what
they need
o 4.We can all help and
encourage each other
History/Social Studies:
February is Black History Month! You could pick an important African American figure from history for each day of February and focus on their accomplishments and discuss how they were perceived as different and not accepted by much of their community because of the difference in their skin color, but in the end made a huge difference in how people are accepted because of those differences today!
Music/Art:
Review the lyrics “Don’t Laugh at Me”
by Peter Paul and Mary (depending on the age—some words/terms may need to be
modified)
After
reading "Don't Laugh at Me," engage students in a discussion of its
messages. You might prompt discussion with such questions as:
·
Who
are some of the people mentioned in the poem who are feeling pain? Why are they
feeling that way?
·
The
poem includes the words "I'm fat, I'm thin, I'm short, I'm tall, I'm deaf,
I'm blind, hey, aren't we all..." What do those words mean? How might we
all be "blind" to some people?
·
Do
you think most people can relate to the words of this song? Have you ever felt
the way the people mentioned in the song feel?
·
Is
it fair to say that tolerance is one of the main themes of this song?
(Adapted from
educationworld.com)
Visual Technology:
View the Pixar short 3 minute film
“For the Birds” here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOiyD26cJ2A)
Kids will get a kick out of it and
it’s a great fun way to introduce the topic of acceptance, diversity and
friendships during a morning meeting or a transition.
Misc.
Visual demonstration: Have a brown egg and a white egg and discuss
their physical differences as a class.
Break them in a plate where the kids cannot see and have them guess which
yoke came from which color egg.
The takeaway: The same is for people! We may have physical differences and unique
qualities, but we are all equal and should be treated the same as anyone else!
Books
What a great resource for finding books by theme or topic!
-type in a topic or word in the search and it will show you
all the books that have been tagged with that word---you can get as specific as
you would like!
