Tease Monster

In third grade we read Tease Monster by Julia Cook.  I enjoy reading this story because it helps students differentiate "teasing" from "bullying."  As children grow they learn to develop their own unique sense of humor from the models around them.  Sometimes the remarks they make are funny to their friends, but other times the unfiltered remarks can rub friends the wrong way.  Good-natured teasing should bring friendships and relationship closer, whereas hurtful teasing can do the exact opposite.

Tease Monster helps students evaluate if a tease is a good-natured tease that adds to their friends' lives or if a tease is mean-spirited and takes away from their friends' lives.  It also provides students with coping skills they can use to resolve conflict if a tease is taken the wrong way.  Many times something said that was meant to be funny can take a wrong turn and really offend your friends.  If this happens, an easy fix is to genuinely apologize.

We made t-charts to describe the differences: