A Tattletale Adventure

As I mentioned in my first intro lesson post, I had some kindergarten teachers who wanted a tattling lesson. Little one have such a hard time with this, so hopefully this lesson will help our my teachers.
I start out by introducing the topic and see what they already know. Then we read Don't Squeal Unless it's a BIG DEAL! by Jeanie Franz Ransom. 


The book can be a little long, but it has great info in it. There are other great tattling books, but I had a copy of this in both my offices, so that made my decision easy. A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue by Julia Cook is also a good book for this topic. 

After reading the book, review the information about when to tell. Is some hurt? Does it involve you? Can it wait? Is it an emergency? I then tell the students that tattling makes us sad because it takes time away from learning and friends get in trouble. Telling makes us happy because we want everyone to be safe at school and telling helps grownups do that. 

Next we play a game. I send the students to their seats unless they are already there. Draw a smiley face and a sad face on the board, label tattling and telling in need be. Taking turns, allow each student to have a post-it note/card with a scenario on it. I don't force any students to draw one, but I try to let each student that wants to draw one if the class is small enough. Ask them if it is tattling or telling. I ask if it is an emergency or if anyone is being hurt if they are struggling. I repeat that if no one is hurt and it isn't an emergency, it's tattling. I let them place the note or card on the side of the board they think it belongs (happy/telling or sad/tattling). Some of my white boards didn't hold my cheap notes well, so I set them in the tray of the white board. I go on like that until each student has gone. You may have to read the notes/cards for the student. I finish with a coloring page if time permits.

When talking about whether someone is hurt or not, it may be good to remind the students of emergency level hurts: bleeding, broken bones, being sick, bee sting, and bullying. This TPT store has a great resource for these tips and calls the the 5 B's! I also tell the kiddos that bullying happens when someone is hurt over and over by the same person or people on purpose.

I print my cards on post-it notes, which allows for ease of putting them on the board. They can be restuck a few times. This is what they look like: 

I have a tattling bundle on my TPT store with a blank post-in note printing page, instructions for how to print on a post-it notes, scenarios to print on post-its, a one page condensed list of scenarios, and a pig coloring sheet.
You could also print and laminate the post-it note pages without post its on them to make cards.
The lesson plan in also available FREE in my TPT store.