For our last lesson of the year, I reviewed the 3 different ways we respond to conflict. With our older students I go into the brain stem and our reptilian brain's fight/flight/freeze, but in the lower grades I found a great alternative that is much more developmentally appropriate from The School Counselor's Chronicle. I started by showing them this hilarious video on conflict, compliments of Sesame Street and Robin Williams:
Then I introduce the 3 ways we respond to conflict as human beings: like a mouse, like a monster, or like me. We wrote down examples of how each would respond to a conflict in our flip book. For example, a mouse might ignore, stay quiet, etc. A monster might yell, push back, etc. Me might be assertive, use I Message, etc. We created flipbooks to help learn about each of our possible reactions and discuss which works the best.
After we had a clear understanding of each of the 3 types of responses, we acted them out. I printed out large masks of a mouse and a monster for students to wear to show the different ways we might respond.
I found a great activity on Learning to Give to help our fourth graders understand prejudice and discrimination. Many of us have misconceptions about the worlds demographics in regards to population, health, wealth, and resources. I started by giving students an activity called "If the World Were 100 People." I had students imagine that our ever-growing population of 7.1 billion people would be represented by only 100 people (roughly each 1 person would represent 70,000,000 million people - as figured out by one of our students). The handout had numbers listed up top that were to be placed next to different groupings of people. I gave them about 5-7 minutes to work on this before we went over the true results. The true answers shocked them. We discussed what surprised us most about the truth. I reinforced that if our perceptions about the world are not accurate, then how accurate are our perceptions of our own country? state? community? school? and other individuals?
People often use labels or categories to describe others. These labels might be based on clothing, looks, the way someone talks, the groups they belong to etc. Categorizing things or people is a natural behavior, however, people often make assumptions about groups of people they don't even know. I asked students to come up with some categories that we use to group people. Their answers included: nerds, blacks, whites, homeless, jocks, popular kids, gays, etc. I then challenged them to describe what a "nerd" was - how would you know someone is a nerd? They listed out some characteristics and I then further probed by asking if our assumptions we have about this group apply to everyone in the group? Do most people hold the same assumptions about a group? Why or why not? Do assumptions tell us anything definite about a categorized individual? How do our assumptions affect our behavior toward others? When we make assumptions about a group of people or a person - these are called stereotypes. Stereotypes are often unfair and hurtful. When assumptions and stereotypes influence our attitudes, we may find that it's hard to make a fair judgment about them. This is called a bias. We reviewed the list of important vocabulary which raised a rich discussion.
Finally I used the activity "Stand and Deliver". In this activity I read statements aloud that would describe something we could categorize others by: diversity, experience, etc. If the statement was true about you, you were to stand. If the statement was not true about you, you were to stay seated. This activity was done silently and after each statement was read and responded to, I had students look around the room and make observations. Statements varied from male/female, to citizenship, to birth order, to family composition, to teasing/discrimination. We debriefed by discussing the feelings that came up for us during the activity. What was the hardest part? What did you learn about yourself? What did you learn about others? What surprised you? What did this show you about discrimination?
Last year the cup stack was one of my FAVORITE team building activities (see post here). So, naturally, I wanted to give it another shot! The Cup Stack is a fun, yet challenging activity that promotes team work. The supplies are basic: cups, string, rubber bands. I go ahead and tie the string to the rubber bands so it is ready to go. I make a few for groups of 4 and a few for groups of 5, this way no matter what the numbers are in the classroom I can make it work. I start by asking students what teamwork is. What does it look like? sound like? feel like? We brainstorm a list of ideas that I hang in the classroom for students to refer to. Each class comes up with a variety of ideas, but they all center around the same theme.
Then I introduce their challenge. I start off my admitting that this will be a frustrating activity. We discuss ways to handle our stress and feelings that arise when others make a mistake or don't do what we want them to do. I model that they will each be given 6 cups and a rubberband with strings attached to it. Their job is to stack the cups into a design by only holding onto their individual string.
I demonstrate that when everyone pulls on their string the rubberband opens wider, and vice versa. I also show them the challenges of picking up a cup that has tipped on its side or fallen on the floor. No matter what happens, they must follow the one rule: YOU CAN ONLY TOUCH YOUR STRING. No touching the rubber band, no touching the cup, and no touching other group member's strings. I reinforce how communication is so important in order to reach the goal. Then I set them off. Here are some videos and pics.
After about 10-15 minutes, we pause and reflect on our experiences. I ask them to rate their group on how well they worked together using the ideas we wrote at the beginning of the lesson. I ask them what went well for their group. I also ask them what didn't go well for their group. We talk about different strategies and ways we an handle ourselves when things don't go the way we want them to. Throughout the activity I walk around and facilitate positive communication, so I usually have a few examples to help springboard the discussion.
This week in kindergarten we read The Crayon Box That Talked written by Shane Derolf. In the story the crayons are having a difficult time getting along and they say some pretty unkind things to each other. A young girl buys the unhappy box and takes them home with her, eventually showing them that when they work together and get along they create some pretty amazing things. This book was a great springboard for our activities on teamwork.
The first activity we did was the hula hoop pass. I asked students to stand in a circle holding hands. The goal of the activity was to get the hula hoop all the way around the circle without letting go of each others hands. After we accomplished this the first time, I asked students what helped them to be successful. We talked about which strategies helped them get through the hoop faster. Then I posed a second challenge for them. We were going to do it again, but this time we were going to pass the hoop in the opposite direction and try to beat our first time. The second activity we did was a collaborative drawing. I told students that each group would only get one large piece of paper to create a picture. Everyone had to participate and have input on the drawing. I explained what cooperation and collaboration meant, and many students decided they would make a plan before they started drawing.
Now this did not happen without some conflict and compromising! I circulated around the room to facilitate conflict resolution and touch base with their feelings when I noticed frustrated body language. Most groups were able to come up with an idea that everyone agreed on and had their own part. There was one unique group that came up with a plan, but only one student at a time would add their part. This group watched one person begin, then passed the paper along through them, each adding a new piece. Here were some of their final products:
I found this great website with 50 ideas you can do as a family instead of watching tv! Check it out:
Screen Free Week is May 5 – 11! This annual, international initiative was created in 1994 to
encourage families, schools, and communities to embrace screen-free
entertainment for a week. Hundreds of organizations such as the American
Medical Association, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and the YMCA,
support the movement. Here are some fun ways to shut off the screens and have a blast —
outside or inside — with your family. These ideas are also good to
think about as we all begin planning for summer!
In second grade we read the inspirational story, One by Kathryn Otoshi. This story illustrates very simply the bullying of the color blue while the other colors stand by and do nothing. Then "one" comes along and shows the other colors how to be an upstander.
After reading the story, we reflected on how each one of us can be that "one" for someone who is not being treated kindly by another. I passed out a handout with different outlines of tools on it. We brainstormed tools that we could use to help someone in need, and wrote them on each of the tools. The students even became creative with hand-picking which strategy should go on each tool.
Afterward, students cut out each of the tools to wear on their "Upstander Tool Belt" (sentence strip, paper clip, library book pocket).
I came across this AMAZING site on Pinterest when looking for brain breaks. It is free & easy to navigate and SO MUCH FUN!!! You create an account and can make different classes, which is perfect for me as a counselor. For each class you pick an avatar that grows and changes the more time you spend doing brain breaks.
There are so many options available depending on your class needs: calming, energizing, just a break, refocusing, anger management, de-stressing, etc. Some of the videos coached you through different moves, some were karaoke style, others tested listening skills, and some facilitated free styling. I tested out a bunch with my kindergarten classes and we had a blast. I first started with a discussion of personal space bubbles. Students learned that if they bent, stretched, kicked, or flailed their arms in any direction they should not touch anyone. If we accidentally popped someone's bubble, we were to apologize and then move where you could have more space. Then we all moved to our dancing positions and began!
I had pre-selected different brain breaks and watched them ahead of time to see if they were appropriate for my goal. The ones we did were Freeze It: Emotions, Exercise Like a Rock Star, Dancing Robots, Dinosaur Stomp, Ants in Your Pants, Happy, and Let It Go. Here are a couple shots of us in action:
