This was a fun "last lesson" for students as they transition campuses.
Campus transitions can be exciting and difficult. In our final guidance lesson for 5th grade, we talked about the transition to Jr. High (we were going for a visit during the last week of school.) I made sure to mention who their counselor would be and that she would be AWESOME!
Then, we reminisced about what students would miss about elementary and memories they had on our campus. I passed out index cards, and they wrote down either a fun memory, or what they would miss. Then we cut out Hershey kisses (I ran copies on cardstock ~ here is a link to a similar pattern.) We covered our kisses with foil and glued on the index cards. I had the classroom teacher write the students names on the ribbons while we worked, and then we stapled them on. The result:
I blurred out the student names for this photo.
Students and teachers enjoyed reading what the kids had written. I would definitely do this again.
1. Engage: Ask students if they have ever been given a special gift. Then introduce the word generosity. What does it mean? Giving.
2. Demonstrate: I bring my basket of kind letters, trinkets, and pictures students have given me over the years and tell them how even though these are worth much money, they mean so much to me.
3. Explore: How can we give? If we don't have credit cards and bank accounts, what do we have to give?
Treasures - giving away toys we no longer use, passing down clothing, putting spare change in the Salvation Army bucket, donating canned goods, etc.
Time - spending time playing with siblings or helping them look for lost items, listening, volunteering, etc.
Talents - writing a note to someone, helping others who might be struggling with classwork, making people laugh and smile, braiding someone's hair, etc.
4. Inspire: We watch two videos about generosity on the YouTube.
Teddy Bear Toss: This video shows how small acts of generosity
in large groups can make a big difference!
This video shows the generosity of giving something special
to a stranger. And how kindness can spread.
5. Give!
Pennies for Patients through the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is a great charity. A very beloved family member has lymphoma, so this was near and dear to my heart. It was an easy project AS LONG AS you have a bank with a coin counter.
Freerice.com is a great way for kids to practice vocabulary while earning grains of rice for the hungry.
Currently, Macy's will donate $1 to Make-a-Wish Foundation for each letter written to Santa.
Consider adopting an angel, elder angel, or soldier, hosting a canned food drive, or donating used glasses to the Lion's Club.
6. Celebrate: Always follow up by announcing how much money (or whatever you collected) was donated.
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." ~ Winston Churchill
The theme this month is kindness. We discussed why kindness is important, and I asked students to pinpoint when it is hard to be kind. We watched some videos about kindness, including the ever popular Kid President and I read the "How Full Is Your Bucket" for kids book.
Then, with the anniversary of 9-11 coming up, we decided to do a Random Act of Kindness (RAK) for our first responders.
For the police, students wrote a thank you note on a paper donut (they wanted real ones) and then colored them.
I compiled these into a fun poster that our SRO (School Resource Officer) will pick up tomorrow.
For the firefighters, I resorted to my old steady, the minions. Students wrote a thank you from BedoBedo the firefighting minion.
Which resulted in this:
And for EMS, I double dipped into the minion category for this cute guy.
Which resulted in this:
I hate sulking on 9-11. I feel like it just makes the terrorists win. So I choose to celebrate Freedom tomorrow!
We have to address the fact that videogames teach kids bullying behaviors. It's super fun to smash someone with a shell on Mario Kart and race passed them for the win.
However, we cannot allow these behaviors to carry over into "real life" situations where we hurt feelings and think it's funny. (Not HAHA.)
I developed this slideshow to engage in a classroom lesson about bullying.
Here are some samples slides:
Then there are some suggestions for dealing with bullies:
It's a fun lesson to engage kids to talk about bullying in a fresh way!
I was brainstorming a fun way to teach PEACE to kids, and I became inspired by minions.
Because we have a giant one at our house. Giant minion = oxymoron or no?
They are literally always fighting! There are tons of funny videos of them (here's one,here's one,here's one. Do you believe me now?)
They need guidance and counseling, y'all.
They are also super cute and they need our help, y'all! I developed this lesson to discuss getting along, peace, and conflict resolution.
I created this little booklet and a slideshow, and my class visits went like this:
1) I showed the videos and we discussed conflict. There has been and will forever be differing views and ideas in this world. Conflict is inevitable. It's how we handle it that matters! Also, we can laugh at the minions, and at videogames ~ but when real people are involved, it's not funny.
2) We talked abut the color white, and how it represents peace. If you take pure white light and separate it, it makes a rainbow of different colors. We want to take our differences and bring them together for pure white light. Peace.
Don't you love that scene in Jerry Maguire where he gets fired and when he leaves the office he shouts, "These fish have manners!" Cracks. Me. Up.
Well, we all know that manners matter. I found a fun Monster Manners game for the younger elementary grade levels at File Folder Fun (click here) but didn't know what to do for my older elementary kids. I settled on using Fuzzoodles. After a discussion on manners, I split the kids into groups of 3 or 4 and gave them some Fuzzoodles.
You can buy these on the internet! So much fun to make monsters!
Kids were instructed to create an alien out of their fuzzoodles and to name their alien.
Then, I gave them one of these papers with different situations (lunch room, meeting a new person, etc) and said, "If your alien just landed from another planet, could you give them the "do's" and "don't's" so they don't embarrass themselves in these situations? You are so helpful to your alien!"
It was really fun for the kids to present their alien to the class and a great reminder to USE YOUR MANNERS!
