Sharing and Caring

We have started working on a unit about healthy habits and relationships, which includes a focus on rules and safety. Today, we began looking at the main theme for the week: "Be Kind".

During our first trip to the library, the students listened really well to the story Chrysanthemum  by Kevin Henkes. The students passed a heart around as I read the story. They were to wrinkle the heart when someone in the book was mean to Chrysanthemum and also smooth out the heart when someone was kind. They were pretty gentle, so the heart was not as crumpled as I thought it would be in the end! However, they did get the idea that when we say and do mean things it hurts people's hearts. I placed a verse in the middle of the heart that says: "Before you speak think and be smart, it's hard to fix a wrinkled heart." Then, the students placed band aids on the heart and also brainstormed words that heal.

We continued the "Be Kind" theme with the story We Share Everything  by Robert Munsch. We had a discussion about the different things that we can share (which involved a lot of talk about what circumstances would warrant sharing a water bottle!). Students then worked on pages to create our latest classroom book!

 

We also discussed what some classroom rules should be. Some very important ideas came up that are valuable in all walks of life~ be honest, be kind, share, be polite, keep your hands and feet to yourself, and of course~ ask before you take someone's play dough. I think that last piece of advice will fit under be kind/polite :).

Hopefully these and upcoming lessons will give us a great head start at becoming a responsible and respectful class that works together peacefully and happily!