Last year, my tattling lesson was such a big hit with my kindergarten teachers that half of them requested the lesson again on my start of the year needs assessment. All of them said they wanted it again when I asked if they were all interested. I do their intro lessons a week before everyone else so I can do the tattling lesson for their regularly scheduled lesson time. It works out great, and they are loving it again this year! Tattling is something most younger grades struggle with, so hopefully this lesson helps with that.
Click the link above for the lesson. The beauty of kindergarten is how easy it is to repeat a lesson. I pulled everything from last year out of the filing cabinet this morning before the first lesson. All I had to do was make copies of the coloring page and I was ready to start!
This year I did simplify the lesson some and left the "five B's" out and tried to focus on emergencies and getting hurt as seen in the post it cards. The post it cards are the biggest hit with kids and teachers. The kids love the participation. The teachers love the examples. By the end of the lesson, they seem to understand some much better what's an emergency (a BIG deal) and what isn't! I also reused the post-it notes, which have lost a good bit of their sticky, so I took two small containers to put under the faces on the board instead of having the kids try to stick them to the board (which I found a lot of our boards had trouble with anyway).
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.
Last year, my tattling lesson was such a big hit with my kindergarten teachers that half of them requested the lesson again on my start of the year needs assessment. All of them said they wanted it again when I asked if they were all interested. I do their intro lessons a week before everyone else so I can do the tattling lesson for their regularly scheduled lesson time. It works out great, and they are loving it again this year! Tattling is something most younger grades struggle with, so hopefully this lesson helps with that. 
