Random Acts of Kindness

To carry on my lesson of selflessness with the kiddos, I'm doing a random acts of kindness week. I actually started this at the beginning of the week so that we could do it before Christmas break (because I didn't actually get to see the kids until Wednesday!)

So, continuing the target of "I can show selflessness through my interactions with others", I had all of the kids' names in a bowl and I had each kiddo draw a name. They HAD to have someone else's name. And each day during the week, I did this so that they could have a different name. Each and every day, they had to do one nice thing for that individual without making it known that they were doing it. So being secretive was very important for this activity. Then, at the end of the day during advisory, the kids had to share on a piece of paper the nice thing someone in the class did FOR them. I was able to give them a grade based on this activity.

It was simple, easy, and really got the kids out of the comfort zone. If you are a community PSR, you could go to a store and do "random acts of kindness" for strangers - someone drops something on the floor, so the kiddo picks it up for them. Or they find a display knocked over, so they help pick it up. The possibilities are endless here! 

No pictures for this one, as I think it is pretty self explanatory. :) 

Selflessness

The semester is winding down for both my kiddos at school, as well as at the school I attend for my masters degree in clinical counseling. And as we head into Christmas and the New Year, I wanted to teach the kids selflessness and using it in everyday life.

The first activity I called "The Wishing Tree". Basically, we made a big Christmas tree out of butcher paper (I had a kiddo who needed a calming activity help me with all of those curls! Love it!). Then, each of them got three blank Christmas ornament patterns. They could decorate it however they wanted, but I wanted them to think of something they wished for others. I turned on Christmas music and the whole class was so focused and seemed to really enjoy the activity. Then, we shared our wishes for others and I allowed the class to put their ornaments on the tree.

Do not judge us for our Christmas tree making skills... 

Homemade Gift Guru  is where you can download the ornament pattern if you would like.

This kids did awesome with this activity. I was very pleased with the participation and effort that went into making the ornaments and the wishes that they gave for other people. We had everything from world peace to wishing that we could have a white Christmas, but that it would only snow on the grass so that nobody got hurt while they were driving.I am consistently blown away by the kids' selflessness when they are prompted... just hoping I can get their selflessness to shine through all the time!

We have 5 more schools days left until Christmas break and I'm not sure who is more ready... the kids or the teachers! I'm also done with school as of last Friday, so I've got "plenty" of free time to do things for this blog... I hope! We shall see.

Have a wonderful day!

Tattling versus Informing

Even at the level that I teach (which, if you didn't know from my about me post, I teach 7th and 8th graders), tattling is a very big problem. It disrupts the kiddo's day, it disrupts the learning environment, and it really isn't productive for anybody involved. Then why is it such a big problem?! So, continuing on the lesson plan of problem solving and conflict management, I bring to you tattling versus informing. I have also seen this lesson called "Emergency or Non Emergency" which I totally love, too, but don't most kids think that it is an emergency if little Johnny won't play with them on the playground?

So I made this poster chart (Note: this one is not mine, but I never got to snap a picture!) with the different ideas of what is tattling and what is informing.

We watched this short video regarding the differences between informing and tattling to help solidify what I just said to them (for my visual learners).

Then, I made these fun little guys so that we could apply what we learned to scenarios.

Aren't these great?! Obviously, not my pictures again but I used Informing, not Telling on mine.

So some of the scenarios I used were:

• She hit me. (Inform)
• He threw a pencil at me. (Inform)
• She called me a name. (Inform)
• He pushed me on the playground. (Inform)
• She wrote on the wall in the bathroom. (Inform)
• She is drawing on her paper instead of working. (Tattle)
• She looked at me funny. (Tattle)
• He cut in front of me in line. (Tattle)
• He took my pencil. (Tattle)
• She won't play with me at recess. (Tattle)

The kids would raise their little Tattle or Inform signs to show me what they thought the person was doing. I might even use this another way by having the kids come up to me and say these things! Maybe draw them out of a hat and act out the scenario. LOVE IT! 

Obviously, there are tons of ways to do this lesson. I love the topic because it is so relevant. 

Problem Solving Part 2

Hello all you wonderful people! So here is part 2 of my problem solving unit. I will be using this on Wednesday of this week because our school psychologist comes in and gives a lecture at the beginning of every week (Mondays, sometimes Tuesdays depending on the block schedule).

When we left Problem Solving Part 1 we had some example scenarios that the kids could rate on the scale of 1 to 5 for problem severity. But do they know how to solve those problems? It's time to teach them the steps to problem solving!

Here's a cool printable for you:

So now... maybe given an example or two and then play PROBLEM SOLVING JEOPARDY! I made this jeopardy board and I would love to share it with you. Also, there are tons of tutorials out there if you want to make your own jeopardy games. Don't you love the Internet? 

Social Skills Jeopardy

Enjoy, PSR friends!