For my little ones, I use a great book for this lesson. It is Tacky the Penguin by Helen Lester. I LOVE this book. My supervisor in internship used it, and I just fell in love with this story of an odd bird that saved his friends! I use this to teacher our kids that everyone is different, and that was okay. Tacky was different, and it ended up saving his friends. We should be proud of what makes us unique as well as respect the uniqueness of others. I tell them what unique means.
Then we do an activity based on grade level and ability. I use a coloring sheet of Tacky, a writing sheet where they write something unique about themselves they are proud of and draw a picture, or an alike/different Venn diagram comparison.
For the alike and different, I try to have the teacher pair up the kids so they don't end up with their best friends. I call out topics for them to discuss: favorite color, favorite sport, favorite food, etc., as well as natural things like eye color and hair color. They write different stuff in the outer part of the diagram, and things they have in common in the middle. After the activity, we process what they learned about their partners.
You can get my Venn diagram for FREE here in my TPT store.
How do you teach your kids respect? Let me know!
Have any questions about this lesson? Let me know!
