Creating an environment where children feel accepted and welcome is something we strive to do at my school. In 2nd grade I do a lesson with the book "Have You Filled A Bucket Today?", but was in search of a 1st grade lesson that would essentially teach the same lesson, but in a different way. I came up with a lesson I call "Friendship Chain." In the beginning of the lesson we read the book, "Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale" by Marcus Pfister. The book is about getting to know others rather than passing judgement on them. The "Big Blue Whale" keeps staring at all of the fish and the fish assume that he is going to eat them when really, after several events, the fish find out that he was just admiring their beautiful scales. After we discuss the book we move into talking about making friends and keeping friends. We talk about using kind words with others, which allow us to make and keep friends, while saying mean things may cause us to lose friends. Before the lesson I write each student in the classes name on a strip of construction paper, and then after we read the book I pass out a strip to each student, making sure they do not get their own. The students then return to their seats with the task of writing nice things about the student. I also encourage them to draw pictures if they wish. About 10 minutes before the end of the lesson we gather in a circle and the students tell us who they had and what they wrote. After each student shares, I staple the strips of paper into a chain. In the past I have give the chain to the classroom teacher to display as they wish. This year I decided to link all of the 1st grades strips together and hang them in the hallway for the whole school to see. I also included a poster explaining what the purpose of the lesson was.
There are many ways to adapt and tweak this lesson. I am still in search of another book that may fit more appropriately with this lesson. Please let me know if you can think of any. Enjoy!
Link to the lesson plan:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4Nf7zOyksaZNS1YaWhfamc0cXM/edit?usp=sharing
This was taken after two classes--we later added 4 more!
We displayed this in the hallway, basically explaining the purpose of the lesson, along with the objectives.
This book works especially well if you have already read "Rainbow Fish" with the students.
2 comments:
I am a school counselor in Denver and really love this idea. I will use it with first graders where I work now. If I can't find the book, I'll probably use "How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends?" as a substitute. Thanks for sharing!
These are great ideas. I think it's hard to get children to open to other children. I will have to try some of these methods. http://www.innerdimensions.com.au/
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