Anti Bullying

It's getting to the point of the year where everyone could use a reminder of how to treat others in school. My grade partner and I decided to start an anti-bullying unit in first grade. We have so many great ideas of what to do with our classes! Today, we started off by talking about friends. We had a class discussion on what it means to be a friend, how to make friends, and how to be a good friend. We watched a video on BrainPOP Jr. to get our brains thinking about friends.

Click HERE to watch a video on friends

Then my kiddies sat in a circle and they each shared one way they can be a friend to someone else. After they all shared, they wrote 2 ways they can be a friend on 2 separate strips of paper. Once everyone was done, I took their paper strips and made a chain out of them. We are going to connect our chain to the chain the other first grade class made and hang it in the hallway between our classrooms.

For our second day of anti-bullying, we focused our discussion on ways to talk to friends. I told students to think of things they could say to someone that would make them feel good and smile. I had a few students share things they would say. Then we looked at a list of sentences I had on the board, called Sparkle Statements. The kiddies read over the statements and each shared their favorite one. After sharing their favorite one, they wrote it on a cut out of a star. I added glitter to the outside of their stars to make them sparkle. When the glue dried, I hung them in the classroom as a constant reminder of how we should talk to each other.

For the third day of anti bullying activities, we continued our conversation about nice things we can say to our classmates. I introduced the word compliment and we discussed what a compliment is and why we would give people compliments. We all learned that you can give someone a compliment to make them smile and feel good about themselves. I had students think of compliments and we shared a few on the carpet. Then I told students they are going to write compliments for everyone in our class by creating posters. I had each student get a piece of construction paper and write their name in the center and draw their face. Then they each got a marker and sat in their seat to get ready to write their compliments. Students rotated around the room, writing one compliment on each person's poster. They had so much fun writing positive things about their classmates! Once they were all done and everyone wrote a compliment for each person, I let students go back to their own seat and read what was on their poster. It was so cute to see all of their smiling faces as they read what their classmates think of them!

Now that I know my kiddies know how to give each other compliments, I decided to read a book called Friends to the End. It talked about friendship and why we have friends. After that, I read Yes We Can! In this story, animals were laughing at each other because of what they weren't able to do and the animals were all upset. Then the mother comes over and suggests the animals focus on what they can do. The animals end up happy once they talk about and celebrate what they are able to do. After the story, I had students think of why they are special and what they can do. We all sat in a circle and shared one thing they are able to do.

We LOVE Dr. Seuss!

Where do I begin with all of the things we did to celebrate Dr. Seuss?! We did one activity Monday-Thursday and then took all of Friday to do Dr. Seuss related activities. Take a look at all of the fun we had!

We started out by reading a book most of my kiddies were familiar with, The Cat in the Hat. After reading, we filled out applications to become Thing 3! They also wrote stories about what what they would do if the Cat in the Hat came to their house.

Second, we read If I Ran the Zoo. We talked about the different crazy animals the zookeeper would put in his zoo and why he wanted them in his zoo. I had each student create their own animal by combining two animal names (Ex: lionpig). After they came up their animal, they wrote a persuasive letter to convince the zookeeper, Mr. McGrew, to put their animal in his zoo.

Next, we read  Go, Dog, Go! Even though it's not written by Dr. Seuss, it's a beginner book and it's great for the kiddies to read! As a class, we discussed what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Then we shared some of the different dogs in the story and what they were doing. I had each student create their own dog and write what their dog was doing.

Another story we read was One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. There are so many rhyming words in this story, so I had students create a fish by tracing their hand on construction paper and cutting it out. Then they wrote rhyming words on the fingers of their "fish". Finally, they glued their "fish" in their fish bowl and decorated.

The next story we read was a long one, but a great one: Bartholomew and the Oobleck! After reading the story, I mixed corn starch, water, and green food coloring to create Oobleck in our classroom. The students each had a chance to feel the Oobleck. Then they wrote their observations and what it felt like.

On Friday, I asked all of my kiddies to dress in all black so they could become the Cat in the Hat. I drew a nose and whiskers on all of them and then they created their own hat by writing rhyming words on it. Don't we look cute???

Since we read the book The Cat in the Hat earlier in the week, we watched the cartoon version on YouTube. Then we compared and contrasted the movie and book as a class. 

Click HERE to watch The Cat in the Hat

Next, we read Green Eggs and Ham! Instead of making green scrambled eggs, I decided to make green vanilla pudding! I gave each student a little bit with a nilla wafer in the middle, and it looked just like an egg. They were hesitant to try the green "stuff", but once they tasted it, they loved it!

Sam I Am did not want to try the Green Eggs and Ham, so I had my students think of something they would eat and what they would eat it on. I told them both words had to rhyme, which was tough! They worked with a partner to brainstorm ideas of what they could write. Look at what they came up with.

To finish off our Dr. Seuss celebration week, we read Dr. Seuss books with a partner (some of them brought books from home while others read ones I had in class) and then voted on their favorite book. The winner was.........

Bartholomew and the Oobleck!