Respect.... It's the "Wrangler Way"
Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated
Social Skill- Teaching Respect
Be Respectful With Your Words https://www.blogger.com/profile/00952198434385207045
Using a Social Filter
Objective:
This week’s 20 minute social lesson, ideal for students in grades 4+, will focus on teaching kids to use a social filter. Students will:
- Begin to think about their message before communicating with others.
- Work towards keeping socially harsh thoughts inside their brain, while letting friendlier thoughts out.
- Plastic drinking cups
- Paper coffee filters
- Water
- A bucket of sand, dirt, or smallish rocks- or any combination of the above (I literally scooped mine up from behind my building)
Step by Step:
Before beginning the lesson, fit a paper filter into each cup to save time.
1. Hold up a coffee filter. Ask students what they know about it, and what it is used for (some of my kids had never seen one! Thanks a lot, Keurig!). Ask the students to make a smart guess about what a coffee filter has to do with social skills. 2. Guide the students toward a short discussion about thoughts. We can’t always control the thoughts our brain makes, but we CAN learn to control what we choose to communicate. Make a list on the board of examples of thoughts that should stay in our brain (“Wow! You are incredibly stupid!”), and those we can filter and let out (“I see it a different way.”).3. Direct students through a concrete example of filtering our thoughts, outlined visually below:
Fill each filter with a scoop of the dirt.
Pour water over the dirt.
Allow the water to filter through. The result will be slightly cloudy water, and the dirt and rocks left in the filter.
4. Have a brief conversation, using the filter example as a metaphor. Explore student observations (the large chunks are like really unkind things that must never get past our filter, a little dirt gets into the water because no one is perfect, etc.).
5. Send each child home with a fresh coffee filter, with the expectation that they “teach” their family about our social filters. Keep one filter in the learning area as a visual reminder to use our social filter.
To Squish or Not to Squish
Lesson: Respecting Differences
Ants are different from us in ways that are often amazing and fascinating.We often don’t like insects, but some cultures have worshipped bugs: The Egyptians prayed to the Scarab beetle.The ancient Greek cult of Artemis worshipped the bee. What can ants do? How strong are they? How long do they live? Can they smell? If so, how? How many body sections do they have? How do they know to go home right before it rains?
Activities
Make a list of ant facts. Draw, make, and/or visit an anthill. Bring an ant farm into the classroom so students can carefully observe ant behavior, see how ants organize themselves, and try to understand what they are doing. After having learned more about ants, extend the discussion to “how are we different from each other?” Have students press their thumbs into an inkpad and make thumbprints on pieces of paper. Compare them. They’re almost alike, but each is unique and special in its detail. Have students draw self-portraits from their thumbprint.
Lesson : Standing Up to Peer Pressure
Late in the story, the child’s friends arrive on the scene and listen in to the dialogue.The Kid feels mounting pressure as they yell “Squish it!” The child is deeply conflicted and experiencing a pain that is common to children. By now the Kid knows the Ant, and views it with empathy, so maybe squishing it is wrong. On the other hand, to give in to a bug will look very weak indeed—and there seems so little time to choose.
Activities
Role play the scene. Ask your students to imagine that they have just arrived and may have only a few seconds to help their friend, the Kid. What could they possibly say or do to offer support? In many classrooms, children have suggested things like “Tell the Kid that it’s her or his decision. It’s up to you—nobody else.” Or, “You don’t have to listen to them. Make up your own mind.” What else could be said or done? What are the kinds of power at work here? Surely the Kid’s colossal size and superior strength represent power. So does the force of what the other kids are saying, and the clarity of the ant’s appeal. What other kinds of power might be available? Ask children to recount stories—without naming names—in which they were pressured to do something they thought might be wrong. How did they work it out? What could a friend have said or done to help them out of the situation?
If age appropriate, write a persuasive essay, individually or in a group, from the viewpoint of the friends who try to influence the Kid one way or the other. Persuasive essays are a part of many state standards; use this occasion as a persuasive prompt.