The Classroom Guidance unit that ran from mid-December through mid-January was about calming down strategies and how to handle conflict peacefully. I used a series of videos in 2nd -5th grades called "Getting Along with Groark". This curriculum includes footage of Groark, a sweet child-like puppet, getting into various conflicts with his puppet friends. After Groark discusses his problem with a group of real elementary school children, he applies what he has learned and succeeds in bringing about a peaceful, positive solution. This lesson series is funny, entertaining, and engaging. Students are always excited when they come to my classroom and find out we are getting ready to do a "Groark Lesson". In KG & 1st grade we continued to touch on the same theme using more Howard B. Wigglebottom social stories.
5th Grade:
Groark Learns About Prejudice: Students learned that prejudice means to Pre-Judge someone, or a group of people, based on an opinion without any factual information. Students learn that it is normal to make an informed judgement of someone once we get to know that person but that we should refrain from pre-judging others. Students learned the value of being open to diverse groups of people.4th Grade:
Groark Learns About Bullying: Students learned to recognize different forms of bullying behavior and the impact it can have on others. Students also learned ways to manage unkind behavior and when to report bullying.3rd Grade:
Groark Learns to Work Out Conflicts: Students learned that conflict between people is normal. Students learned how to prevent minor disagreements from escalating into serious fights and steps for working out conflicts fairly and peacefully.2nd Grade:
Groark Learns to Control Anger: Students learned that feeling anger is normal but that we still need to control ourselves and make responsible choices even when we are angry. I have them reflect on how difficult it can be to think of calming down strategies when we are already angry and that's why it's good to "make a plan" and practice certain strategies while we are calm so we are better able to recall and use the strategies when we become angry.
1st Grade:
Students watched the Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns It's Okay to Back Away social story from the wedolisten.org website. Students learned about anger triggers and strategies for calming down. We watched a short video clip, from the Second Steps Curriculum, on how to properly use belly breathing (or soup bowl breathing) to calm down,,, slow deep breath in through your nose and a slow quiet breath all the way out from your mouth,,, repeat as needed. We also call it "soup-bowl breathing" because it's like "smelling" a bowl of hot yummy soup and then "blowing" the soup cool. This gives the younger students a physical action and visual cue to remember the strategy. We practiced the following calming down strategies as a whole class: 1. soup bowl breathing 2. counting backwards, and 3. reframing negative self-talk to positive self-talk.
Kindergarten:
Students watched the Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen social story from the wedolisten.org website. Students learned what it looks like to be a good listener and the positive consequences for active listening and the negative consequences that can happen when we choose not to listen. True Active Listening is the cornerstone of being able to work out conflict peacefully which is why we want to set the stage for active listening in kindergarten and even earlier. I partnered with a student and modeled poor listening skills and then we talked about what made it a poor example of listening and then I modeled good active listening skills with a student and we talked about what made it a good example. When time allowed, I had some classes partner up and practice active listening skills with each other. We used listening techniques such as a head nod, eyes on the speaker, and facing toward each other when using active listening.
Coming Soon:
Stay tuned for an update on the fun we had from mid-January to mid-February working on the themes of "Bucket Filling" and "Random Acts of Kindness"!!
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