Lessons for November- friends, safety, empathy, decision making, thankfulness, and bullying!

It's almost time for Thanksgiving break!!!!! Until then, here is a little about the fun we are having in class..

K-
We are talking about being a good friend.

Intro: We started out by reading "Let's Be Friends" on BookFlix.

Next, we watched "Rainbow Fish" on Storyline Online to talk about how good friends put others first and share. 

The class shared examples of good friendship skills that I wrote on starfish and fish.  To end each student decorated his/her own rainbow fish that we put on our bulletin board: "We are all friends in our school" (get it school haha!) 

Need more: Check out the word match on Book Flix:

1st Grade: Our character education word of the month is citizenship. We are reading "Michael, Recycle!" This is such a cute rhyming book and it has a lot of big vocabulary words for 1st grade, like crusader! 

In the past I have used this amazing Rhyme, Define, Rhyme pack by Speech Snacks I found on TPT.

I really like it, but I think its too hard for 1st grade. I would definitely use it for 2nd or 3rd. If your students are up for the challenge there are rhyming cards in the TPT pack- you could hand them out to each child and them find the partner whose card rhymes with theirs. There are also some great discussion cards you could play Quiz Quiz Trade with. 

First, we read and slowly discuss the book. I let the students turn and talk and share their ideas and answer questions. Then at the end the students draw what they would do at school if we had a "Be Greener Campaign." 

Lesson Highlights and Ideas

I really like doing lessons where students tap into themselves and make personal connections, but I love it when I can extend that to help them make connections with other classmates.

Here are a few ideas for lessons you may enjoy.

Here is what I did with 5th Grade. We watched this amazing Ted Talks about a boy becoming an artist. *heads up: make sure you watch this video before you play it to make sure it's good for your students. Mine love it and I've never had a problem.

After the video, we discussed the struggles he faced in reaching his goals and I asked the students to reflect on their own struggles by telling filing in the blanks: "I struggle with___, but I won't let that stop me from___." Here is the exit ticket.

I had a student tell me he loved this lesson because he really got to open up and share his feelings. Music to a counselors ears.

Other ideas:
*Read " This Is Moose" as a lead in and talk about reaching your goals even when others might doubt you. My students LOVE this book.

 This book is going to be so much fun for our career unit and talking about not giving up on your dreams. Read the story behind the story here.

*Tie this into a bravery by reading "My Brave Year of Firsts" with younger students.
*Talk about perseverance with older students by reading "3 Ninja Pigs" and/or watching this adorable video about not giving up.

*Have students research other famous people that have struggled and over come.
My next favorite lesson is....