Welcome Back to Lessons!

After a glorious 12 weeks at home with my new bundle of joy, I am back at work and getting back into the swing of things! Of course I have a mound of work to get caught up on, but this week I resume lessons. 

This month we are focusing on bullying and being bucket fillers as a way to combat bullying. I love the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today?! 

I begin each lesson by discussing the difference between a mean kid and bully. I tell them bullies are mean every single day for weeks, not just once or twice. I tell them bullies are big deals that we need help with. I also tell them they can try to solve problems with mean kids first (because it still upsets us when someone is mean only one time) by telling them to stop or playing elsewhere. 

Then I begin to tell them that a great way to stop bullies and mean kids a like is to be a bucket filler. We read the book and then do a developmentally appropriate activity based on grade. I do this with ALL my students K-6!
See this post for our bucket filling adventures from last year. And visit my TPT store to get a copy of the activity sheets I use for each level.

What other lessons work well with combating bullying? What do you use at your school?

Younger Bullying Lesson

This month we are talking about bullying at both of my schools! I've already made a post about my bulling lesson for 4th-6th grade, which you can find HERE. I really, really want my kids to know what bullying really means. We over use that word so much, so I'm determined to help them learn when it is real bullying.

Kindergarten-1st grade
I use the book Llama Llama and the Bullygoat for my smallest babies. After reading the book, we talk about the difference between mean kids and bullies. I tell them I want them to know the difference. Mean kids aren't a big deal and they have already learned some skills to help with that in Simon's Hook and in our tattling lesson. Then I tell them bullies are a big deal that an adult needs to help with. Then I explain the difference:

A bully is someone that:

• Hurts you over and over again. They hurt you every day.
• They hurt you on purpose.
• You are not being mean back to them.

I tell them that if they are calling someone a mean name back every day that it is NOT bullying. I give them some examples of mean kids vs. bullies and ask them to help me figure out which ones are bullies and which ones are mean kids. After that I give them a coloring page. 


2nd grade and 3rd grade
For these students, I use the book The Recess Queen. However, instead of reading it to them, I use a Youtube video of someone else reading it. Why? Because while someone else is reading the book, I take a piece of paper with a heart drawn on it and rip it every time Mean Jean bullies kids on the playground.
I stop the video at about 1:53 and we talk about what happened to my heart. I tell them this is what happens when we bully our friends. 
After this discussion, we finish the video of someone reading the book. Then we talk about what Katy Sue did that no one else had. We refer back to our bucket filling lesson and the activities we did and how bullies are bucket dippers, so they have an empty bucket. Katy Sue filled Mean Jean's bucket! And then Mean Jean wasn't so mean any more.
I also give them the same info about mean kids vs. bullies, and remind them that they learned how to cope with mean kids last month with Simon's Hook. 


Click HERE to get all the resources I use for K-3!

What fun things to you do to help stop bullying and teach kids about bullying at your school?

Bullies!

The 4th graders at one of my schools are falling apart! They are being so cruel to each other and the bullying word is being thrown around a lot. I had not planned on doing my bullying lesson until the spring, but because of all the chaos, 4th grade will get the lessons starting next week.
Bullying is a big deal, and in Georgja, the police may become involved. Bullying is also an overused term. Sometimes, kids are just mean, and sometimes they are really just being mean when others think they are being bullied. The main purpose of this lesson is to teach students what bullying really is and what to do about it.  We do an activity where they talk about scenarios and what they could do about those situations.
The Powerpoint is in my TPT store. I begin with the crumpled paper activity where the kids crumbled, crush, step on, whatever they want to it. Their only instruction is to NOT rip it. Once they are good and crumpled, they smooth it out as best they can. Then I make them apologize to the paper. After that, we talk about how this is what happens when someone is bullied. The scars from being bullied don't go away with a simple, "I'm sorry." I define bullying and explain the difference between bullying and conflict. Sometimes kids are just plain mean, and I tell them such. Bullying and being mean are not always one in the same. I give examples of the four kinds of bullying: physical, verbal, cyber, and relational bullying. We then talk about what to do if they or someone else is being bullied.
We then do an activity where the students are divided into groups of 4-5. They talk about scenarios they are given and what they could do about that. Then we discuss as a class.
I save about five minutes at the end of my lesson for a wonderful lip dub video done by a high school. The whole school is involved, and I think it's good for my older elementary school kids to see high school aged students saying no to bullying. I make sure to highlight that the ENTIRE school is involved in standing up and saying no to bullying. Cool kids, unpopular kids, nerdy kids, jocks, ALL of them.

Check it out:

The instructions for the activity, the definition of bullying, conflict vs. bullying, the types of bullying, and what students can do if they are being bullied or if they see bullying, and a link to the Cypress Ranch lip dub video is included in the Powerpoint. The lesson plan can be found here . Both the lesson plan and the scenario cards are free in my TPT store.

Here is the actual link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENBJnX6cEKE&index=1&list=LLs5AC47l5x2vxs_WMAb-Gtg