Tattling vs. Reporting

This week, we are focusing on Tattling vs. Reporting.  This is the fun book I use with grades K-3.  

Just in case you are sick without a voice, need to change it up a bit, or don't have this book, you can click on this link: Don't Squeal Unless It's a Big Deal from YouTube.

I love, LOVE this book because it definitely covers what you need to when addressing this issue with the younger kiddos.

I start out the lesson by talking about the difference between tattling and reporting (getting someone vs. emergency/helping).  We talk about kid size problems vs. adult size problems.  Kid problems are something that can be resolved or at least try to be resolved before coming to an adult.  An adult size problem is when someone is hurt or is an emergency.

This story is fun to read to students because you can do all of the impersonations with all the tattle telling and make it fun.  I always like to replace the teachers names with the class's real teacher.

For an activity, I make a sign that says:

 

Grades K-4, I read out scenarios (below) aloud to the class and they move to one side or the other according to if it is a tattle or a report.  Here are the scenarios I found from the savvyschoolcounselor.

Grades 5 & 6, the kids played Cherades where they picked a scenario and had to act it out.  When a student had guessed what they were doing, their ticket to picking out the next scenario was to tell whether it was tattling or reporting.  For the older grades, tattling may not be much of an issue, so I focused more on the reporting issue having to do with peer pressure, finding a trusted adult, and what support is needed when reporting information.

For Kindergarten, after I have read the book, I have them draw a picture of what it looks like to tattle (Squeal) and what it looks like to report (Big Deal).

I hope this lesson is helpful to you while trying to teach our little munchkins the difference between tattling and reporting.

Diversity / Tolerance: Name Calling / Teasing

I had a student in my office not too long ago saying that other students have been doing some name calling based on their color of skin and ethnic background. I decided to make a lesson out of this since this wasn't the first time I had heard things like this happening. Before I started the lesson, explained to the students that there has been some problems with name calling, teasing, and other things because of students' beliefs, the way they look, the things they have/don't have and etc. I also explained that it isn't tolerated here at school.

For grades 3-6th:

Discuss what it means to "think outside the box."

Handout the Connect the Dots brain buster (page 3 &4). Give the instructions and give then them a clue; "Think outside the box." I gave them about 3 minutes to attempt the problem. After time was up, show them how to complete the problem. Discuss with them the way to solve the problem, you have to think "outside" the box.

Next, show them a picture of the Herman Grid. Ask the students to describe what they see. Let them shout out guesses until someone says they see dots. Explain that at first, we only see the lines and the rectangles. Ask: Are the gray dots really there? The longer we look at something, the more we can see. Relate this to having first impressions. Ask the following:

How can we relate this grid to people?
Have you ever had the wrong impression of someone?
Has someone ever had the wrong impression of you?

Next, read, show, and/or discuss the pictures in the book "Don't Laugh At Me" by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin. (For grades K-2, I explained the problem in the school, read the story and discussed every page, then had the students to draw a picture of what makes them different from others. While they were doing their assignment, I played the CD that comes along with the book, "Don't Laugh At Me." There is two songs, the first is with lyrics and the second is the acoustic version).

Challenge the students to be "thinking outside the box" when they are looking at the pictures. Show the pictures and let the students tell what is happening in each picture. Explain to them that his requires them to look beyond the obvious things we can see.

The classroom discussion was very interesting. I made sure to have the students were looking past the physical differences. For example, the first picture "the one they call a geek," the students noticed he was wearing glasses, but as I let the students keep telling what they see, eventually they noticed that he could be "smart" and could be made fun of because of that, too!

One other point worth mentioning was page about "hey aren't we all?" I made the point that I was taller than most of them, so that makes me tall. However, I was shorter than the teacher, which makes me short. Therefore, I am both TALL and short! That really helped them see the bigger picture!

Overall, this lesson turned out really well and the kids were really able to make the connections I was aiming for.

Lesson: Choices Affect Our Attitude

This was a fun lesson to teach. At first I was a little skeptical, but it turned out really well!

First, have the students write down all the choices they got to make up until that point of the day. I gave them about 2-3 minutes to do so. Then, allow a few students to share some of the things they have written down. Most responses; brush teeth, what clothes to wear, get out of bed, breakfast, and etc.

Read the story about VIKTOR FRANKL. Challenge them to think about the choices he could make, while the choices he couldn't make are read.

During World War II, Viktor Frankl was kept in a Nazi concentration camp for three years. During that time, he could make few of the choices we take for granted every day. He could not choose how to wear his hair; someone chose that his head was to be shaved. He could not choose what clothes to wear; he was given a prison uniform. he could not read or write or talk freely. Someone told him what to get up and exactly what to do every minute of the day. He was treated cruelly, and if he did not work hard enough, he was in danger of being killed.

After the story, ask the following questions:
Does this sound like something you would like to happen to you?
How do you feel about this story?
What choices could Viktor Frankl make?

As the students come up with the choice he could make, write them on the board. Most responses turned out to be something like he could choose to eat or not, wear the uniform or not, live or die, and etc. Once they started to mention choice that referred back to living or dying, have them think about the choices he could make that affected his attitude (happy, sad, mad, angry, etc).

Then, ask the students to add choices to their list that they didn't think of or write before!

Activity/Object Lesson:
Split the class into groups. You can use various manipulatives for this activity, but I used wood puzzles. For one puzzle, I didn't include the instructions how to put it together and others I did include the instructions.
Some suggestions would be to give some groups legos and some groups sticks and an empty glue bottle and instruct them to make a house.



Allow the groups about 10 minutes to attempt to put their puzzle together. Watch some of the choices that were made by the students. Some watched, some still sat at their desk, some got mad, some were happy. Some succeeded and some didn't. Obviously, the ones without the instructions didn't succeed.

Once the students are seated again, ask them what choices did they get to make during this activity? Once the students mention their feelings, explain to them that they could choose to have fun or be mad. Explained how the choices they made affected the attitude of the group.

Allow about 30 minutes for this lesson.