On Friday, May 1st we had our annual Lee Olympics. Students rotate through different events and earn ribbons for participation and athletic achievement. Since this is an all-day event, many students that are new to Lee or prone to anxiety might have some worries about Lee Olympics. To ease their nerves, I create social story books for them to know what they expect. I only include events that I know will happen in order to set them up for success. Here's a sample of one book I made for a new kindergartener:
One of our 5th grade students came up with such a creative idea that I had to share! We were talking about some of the other silly animal pictures with puns I have outside of my office and how it'd be fun to find one about Grumpy Cat seeing the counselor.
A few days later a large poster arrived in my office, created by the same 5th grader I had chatted with previously, and I was amazed by her creativity and initiative. Check out what is now hanging outside my office:
In second grade we worked on teamwork and sportsmanship this week. By introducing this topic early, I hope to be preventative in the increasing number of playground conflicts that happen as they develop. I found this great video that shows 3 different examples of teamwork: We brainstormed ideas that we saw in the video. How did the animals show teamwork? How did the animals show great sportsmanship in their challenges? How can we show these skills when we're playing with each other or learning in the classroom?
After our discussion, we played one of my favorite games, Transformation Rock Paper Scissors! I recently played this with third grade, you can check it out here. I can't take all of the credit, I stumbled across this fun game here. I left a few minutes at the end of the lesson to process how we each did with teamwork and sportsmanship. What went well? What do we need to work on for next time? Are there any rules we should take out or add to make the game more successful?
In first grade we have been working on social skills. One very important social skill is learning about friendships: what we want in a friend, how to keep friends, what we bring to a friendship, etc. I usually read the book How to Lose All Your Friends written by Nancy Carlson, but this year I found a cute video that reinforces her story. I chose to show the silent movie and I read it aloud so we could pause to discuss at different points. The students found the video hilarious and they quickly understood that this video is all the things NOT to do if you want to make and keep friends. Together we brainstormed a list of what we look for in a friend and what we bring to the table as a friend.
Then we made "Wanted" posters to show and describe what we want in a real friend. You can download the template here.
Our SEL Department developed a Peace Path that students can use in the classroom to help resolve conflict with their peers. You can take a look of how it works as part of our Peace Areas at Lee Elementary here. While this is a great tool for students to use while they're in the classroom, students are left stranded out on the playground when they have conflict. After campuses inquired about how to translate these skills to the outdoor playgrounds, our SEL department created stencils to create a sidewalk Peace Path (thank you, thank you, thank you)! Here is a quick video I took walking through the Peace Path so you can see each of the steps. It took 3-4 hours over 2 days to create the finished product with two people, myself and Joelle Andrew - an amazing parent volunteer/super hero. :)
Our playground Peace Path provides students,
teachers and our entire campus a space and a method that is safe, sincere, and
easy to follow for conflict resolution. It is another effort towards
student empowerment to self-regulate and solve their problems. Ours is
strategically placed between 2 of our playgrounds and has already been a huge hit
with the Roadrunners!
Once completed I took out each class to teach them how to use it. We began by brainstorming common problems that happen with our friends out on the playground:
I had students pair up and brainstorm a "problem" to resolve with their partner, real or fake. Then we headed outside to practice!
Our Peace Path has been a huge success! Not only are teachers on board and helping students through conflict resolution steps at recess, but children are initiating its use during our aftercare program and kids have even been caught & featured on Instagram! Here are some individual shots of each step:
Lee Elementary will be participating in The Great Kindness Challenge this week, Jan 26-30. This is one week dedicated to creating a culture of kindness
on campuses nationwide. Last year 1,099 schools participated! Lee
Elementary is proudly participating in this proactive, positive bullying
prevention initiative!
All students will receive aGreat Kindness Week
checklist with 50 kind deeds. Please encourage your child to complete
the checklist to show the world that kindness matters. If your child
completes their checklist by Friday, January 30th, have them turn it
into Ms. Sepp for a special surprise. During guidance lessons we will be reading What If Everybody Did That?, The Invisible Boy or Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed to spur our conversation about kindness and paying it forward.
Then we will watch some inspirational videos... Here is a glimpse of the many amazingly kind acts that happened throughout the challenge week:
We had 100% participation and ***63 students*** complete the entire 50 kind act challenge, designating Lee Elementary as a 2015 Kindness Certified School:
