In this lesson, I reminded the students of my role at school. Then, we talked about how I often see students when they are having bad days. We read the book "Even Superheroes Have Bad Days" that talks about positive choices that we can make when we are having a rough day. Students identified positive and negative choices for tough situations. Then, they colored their own superhero and identified two positive choices they can make to help them feel better when they are having a bad day.
Lesson 2 - Conflict Resolution
In this lesson, we talked about what to do if someone "bugs" you. We read the book "A Bug and a Wish" by Karen Scheuer. In this book, a boy learns how to deal with people picking on him. He uses a bug and a wish statement.... "It bugs me when _____. I wish _____.". We talked about how this is a great way to deal with someone who is bothering you to try to solve our own problems. However, if this doesn't work - we should get an adult to help us. Students then role played using bug and wish statements.
Lesson 3 - Tolerance
In this lesson, we talked about tolerance and accepting others for who they are. We discussed how everyone in our class is different from each other and how boring it would be if we were all the same. Then, we read the book "The Crayon Box that Talked" by Shane DeRolf. This book is about a box of crayons that don't get along because they are all different. Then, a little girl buys the crayons and shows them that together they all make a beautiful picture. After the story, students completed an activity where they identified something that makes them unique from other people in their class.
Lesson 4 - Self-esteem
In this lesson, we discussed self-esteem and what it means to have high and low self-esteem. We talked about how everyone has days that we don't feel great about ourselves, but it is always important to remember the great things about ourselves so we can feel good. We read the book "Elmer" by David McKee - which is a book about an elephant who doesn't look like the other elephants because he is patchwork colored instead of elephant colored. He feels like all the other elephants laugh at him and make fun of him, but at the end of the story he realizes that he is an important part of his pack and without him, the elephants would not be the same. We discussed how we all make up an important part of our class and families - and without each of us, those groups would not be the same. Students then colored their own rainbows made up with colors that represent them (favorite color, eye color, color of favorite ice cream, hair color, etc.). We talked about how no two rainbows will be exactly the same - and that is a beautiful thing.