MYOB: Mind Your Own Beeswax

The second grade teachers specially requested this lesson and I moved it to a top priority.  Second grade is a time where students begin to look outside of themselves and observe others' choices around them...and TATTLE!  Last year Julia Cook's A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue was a huge hit so I gave it another try.

It chronicles a typical day in Josh's life.  He tattles on everyone, even his dog.  His mother gets fed up with his tattling and warns him that he'll catch tattle tongue if he continues to tattle on others.  The next day at school he hears about a bully threatening to beat up Edith, a friend of his.  Josh remembers what his mom said and chooses not to say anything...which in this case would have been reporting.  The Tattle Prince visits him later that night to go over the "tattle rules" - yes, there are tattle rules - with him.

 

Students learn the difference between tattling and warning/reporting by following these 4 simple rules.  To reinforce this concept, we created our own tattle tongue bookmarks using tongue depressors, sharpies, glue and glitter.

Students evaluated and determined which situations would be tattling and which would be reporting/warning by color-coding the spots on a tongue.  

I also posted 2 helpful posters in each of the 2nd grade classrooms for students to refer to if they were stuck.