Class lessons for October- a highlight

Here's a look at what I'm doing in the classroom for October.

Oct.

Listening Skills “Howard B Wigglebottom Learns To Listen”

Problem Solving/ Conflict Resolution/ Point of view “Duck!Rabbit!” “Howard B Wigglebottom”

Tattle vs. Tell “Don’t Squeal Unless It’s a Big Deal”

Tattle vs. Tell “A Bad Case of the Tattle Tongue” “I Didn’t Do It”

Fairness Self Confidence “It’s Not Fair” “Exclamation Mark” Trustworthiness “Mr. Peabody’s Apples”

Decision Making/ Peer Pressure “Peer Pressure Gauge” Trustworthiness “Mr. Peabody’s Apples”

Click read more below for a more detailed look at the lessons, links to lesson plans and resources, and free activities!

Kindergarten:

We are learning about listening. 

First, we introduce the lesson by watching "How Do Dinosaurs Go To School" on Book Flix. 

You can check out the trailer below:

At the end of the book we talked about what the students noticed in the book that was great or not so great behavior. We ended with talking about being a good listener at school. 

Next, we practiced the 4 steps to good listening found here. 

I had the students say and act the hand motion of each step. They really got into it. Then I told them we would "test" their new knowledge by playing Freeze Dance on Go Noodle. 

Then we practiced again and watched "Howard B Wigglebottom Learns To Listen" at wedolisten.org. 

Need more:

Check out the animated lesson here: https://wedolisten.org/subPages/Learns_to_Listen/Learns_to_Listen.html

We finished with a Howard color sheet while practicing working independently using our noise meter. 

First Grade:

This month we are talking about getting along with others. 

We started by watching a "Howard B Wigglebottom".  I asked the students be book detectives and figure how Howard was feeling and why.

At the end of the book we discussed what they discovered (why he was sad/mad).

We talked about the lessons Howard learned to get along. You can use this as a guide. 

Then we read "Duck/Rabbit" and as we read we talked about whether the narrators  in the story were taking turns, letting others have a say, etc. This was tricky because they actually do. So we talked about how you can disagree without having a fight. 

Next we re-watched "Howard B Wigglebottom" but this time I asked the students to watch it from Howard's friends point of view. 

At the end of the story I gave them each a sheet which they folded in half. On one side they drew what Howard did, on the other how it made his friends feel, and on the back a better choice or solution from the tips we learned/discussed. 

Follow up plan: To compare and contrast "Duck/Rabbit" with "You Are Not Small."

Second grade:

We are learning about tattling. I love this lesson. Before the class begins I ask the students one of the scenarios we will play later and in our game. They give me a thumbs up if they would tell an adult if that happened. This serves as our pre test. 

After reading our story we play "Squeal or No Squeal" on our active board. You can get my flip chart here.

At the end of the lesson I handed out these cards and asked the students one final scenario. I then used these cards as an exit ticket. As the students left they handed me the correct answer and left the wrong answer at their table. 

Need more: check out my lesson plan here and as a follow up play Quiz Quiz Trade using this amazing resource. 

 Third Grade;
We are also talking about tattling vs. telling. We read "Tattle Tongue" by Julia Cook and discussed along the way. At the end of the book we made connections to self and text with this sheet. 

 Next we discussed the tattle rules. You can get a great copy of the rules here.
The students then cut and paste the tattle rules using this handout on TPT.

Fourth Grade:

I ended up really focusing on "Mr. Peabody's Apples." It's such a great book.
To start I challenged a student to squeeze out as much tooth paste out of a small tube as they could in 15 seconds. Then I challenged another student to get as much as they could back in with 30 seconds.

I asked them to make connections to this game as we read the story. For example: you can't take back what you said, even with double the effort and double the time some things can't be undone.

You can get my entire lesson and more on my TPT store here.  I love this book because you can connect it to honesty, stealing, the power of words, consequences, bullying, gossip, rumors, etc.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Activity-Packet-for-Mr-Peabodys-Apples-2132627

Follow up: Use the QQT game cards to start a discussion on a variety of topics. If you want to use the book to talk about rumors, gossip, etc. I created these FREE differentiated exit tickets which are perfect for collecting perception data.

We talked about the power of our words and then watched this video and then used it to give and get compliments from an activity from JyJ counselor. 

Fifth grade: We talked about peer pressure by reading "Peer Pressure Gauge" by Julia Cook.

We followed up by with a little acting. I used this amazing resource created by fellow counselor, Amy Holloway, to divide the students into groups and they acted out what they would do. Students had to a) clearly act the scene b) demonstrate the tips from the book- calmly stand up the peer using a calm assertive voice and c) have an ending/solution/closing to the scene. Check out her peer pressure activity pack for lots of great follow up.