Stick and Stone

I recently added Stick And Stone to my collection of books and am really liking it for my kindergarten-2nd grade students. It is a very simple story with few words on each page but the message is still there.  From the author's website:  Stick and Stone are all alone.  But when Pinecone makes fun of Stone and hurts his feelings, Stick steps in and defends Stone.  "That's just what sticks do.  Friends do it too," says Stick.  Now Stick and Stone are inseparable best friends.  When Stick gets stuck, it's Stone to the rescue.  That's just what stones do.  Best friendship rocks too," says Stone.  I also love that an activity kit is easily downloadable!  Purchase the book HERE.

Connections:

Stick and Stone Activity Kit from the Author's website:  Download HERE

Stick and Stone - Friendship Freebie by Khrys Greco (Free on TPT)

Stick and Stone Reader Response Freebie by Nicole Oconnor (Free on TPT)

Stick and Stone: Interactive Read-Aloud Lesson Plans and Activities ($3.50 on TPT)

Bullying Unit ($2.00 on TPT)

Empathy (Hey, Little Ant)

Hey, Little Ant is a great book that challenges readers to look at life from an insect's point of view.  It is the perfect book for teaching empathy.   It can be really difficult for young students to understand the concept of "standing in someone's shoes" and this book does a really good job of showing just what this means.  

Hey, Little Ant can be used to teach so many different topics.  The teacher's guide lists the following:

Respecting differences

Fostering respect for all living things

Considering stereotypes

Recognizing alternatives to resolving tension through violence

Exploring concepts of big and small, powerful and powerless

Standing up to peer pressure

Connections:
I absolutely love the lesson that lunchbuddiesplus shared on her blog.  She uses Hey, Little Ant to show the difference between  a "thinking of you" person vs. a "just me" person.

You can also get some ideas from the Hey, Little Ant Teacher's Guide.

Some good resources on TPT:
Social Skills, Perspective Taking, Thinking about others  ($3.50)


Bullying- Hey Little Ant! ($3.50)


These are all FREE on TPT:
Hey Little Ant Point of View by Lockwood's Little Learners


Ant Writing Response Pages {Freebie} by Jen Ross - Teacher by the Beach


Hey, Little Ant Opinion/Persuasive Writing by Creativity-To-The-Core



Ant Craftivity by Kelly-Morgan


Hey Little Ant Bulletin Board Writing  by Working-4-The-Classroom

Hey, Little Ant! Reader's Theater by Hanssen-House

Rudolph (Bullying, Diversity)

I found a lesson from WWW.PACER.ORG using Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer and decided to use the lesson with one of my 3rd grade classes today.  I started out showing the students the YouTube clip of Rudolph being teased for being different from his peers.  We then used the discussion questions from the teaching guide and talked about differences and shining bright.  I also showed students the YouTube clip of the misfit toys and we talked about their feelings as well.  If you don't remember the misfit toys, they are the toys who were banished to a cold island because they were unique and didn't look like the other toys.  We then used the star template included in the Activity Guide and completed the sentence, My star shines bright because________________________.

Connections:

YouTube Link: Rudolph Gets Teased by the other reindeer

YouTube Link: The Island of the Misfit Toys

Discussion and Activity Guide

ONE (bullying and bystanders)

I odered the books ONE and Zero a few months back and finally got around to using ONE of them. I had heard a lot about these books but I was still pleasantly surprised with the powerful message behind ONE.  If you don't already have this book in your counseling library I would definitely recommend it!  ONE has a great message of inclusion, empowerment, and tolerance.  This book does a great job of teaching elementary students the power of ONE person.  In the story, Blue is the quiet, passive color who is bullied by hot headed Red.  The other colors are bystanders, who don't like the way Red it treating Blue, but don't stand up for him.  Every time Red bullies Blue and no ONE speaks up, Red grows larger and more powerful.  Finally, the number ONE stands up to Red and teaches all of the colors that everyone counts.

You can purchase ONE HERE.

You can find three different lessons to go along with ONE at welcomingschools.org.  You can find discussion questions to go along with ONE and ZERO HERE and worksheets to supplement the story HERE. There is also a fun demonstration using food coloring HERE.

Everyone Counts Pop-Up Craft by http://readandcreate.co.uk/

Worksheet

Watercolor Activity Page

ONE Lesson and Bulletin Board by Jyjoyner counselor

Being an Upstander

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Friendship Behaviors with The Recess Queen

The Recess Queen is a great book to use to talk about friendship behaviors.  If you don't have this book you should definitely consider adding it to your resources.  There are a ton of great lesson ideas on TPT.  I have made connections to my favorite FREE ones below.

Mean Jean dominates the playground.  Everyone is afraid of Mean Jean.  "Nobody swung until Mean Jean swung. Nobody kicked until Mean Jean kicked.  Nobody bounced until Mean Jean bounced."  Mean Jean is scary and and nobody plays with her.  But when Katie Sue, a teeny girl, moves in she changes everything.  Mean Jean stops yelling and bossing and pushing and bullying and learns to play with the other kids.   You can purchase The Recess Queen HERE.

Free Connections:  All of these resources are FREE on TPT:

The Recess Queen Chit Chat Cards

The Recess Queen

The Recess Queen

The Recess Queen - Reading Response

Mean Jean the Recess Queen Character Traits

I also purchased this Craftivity ($4.00)

The Recess Queen

Related Posts:

Making Friends Is An ART!

Sportsmanship

Goodbye Bully Machine, Hello Kindness!

Juice Box Bully...Empowering Kids to Stand Up For Others

A Bug and a Wish (conflict resolution and problem solving)

Spreading Rumors

Pink Tiara Cookies for Three-A lesson on Friendship

Bullying

Enemy Pie (Friendship)

Kindness Counts and The Potato Chip Champ

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon

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Better Than You

Today's connections are all about boasting, bragging, one-upping and acting conceited.  I have quit a few students who are having trouble in this area.  I find that these students often lack communication skills/social skills and aren't necessarily trying to make other students feel bad.  Bragging is a sure way to lose friends though so I am working hard to help some students communicate in a way that makes everyone feel good.  I am sharing three books that focus on this topic.  Better Than You is great for students in 4-5th grade (or older), Well, I Can Top That! is great for grades 2-3 and I'm the Best! is more appropriate for K-1.

Connections:

Better Than  You

Trudy Ludwig is one of my favorite authors and I think I have almost all of her books.  I really like the book Better Than You because the main characters are boys.  The main character, Tyler, has a friend who constantly brags about "being better".  I use this book to help students understand that braggaing can ruin friendships.  This book also has a section for parents and teachers to help guide discussions.

Better Than You Lesson

Better Than You Lesson plan

Well, I Can Top That

Description from Amazon:  Brad has a lot of great things going on his life or at least that's what he tells all of his classmates!  When one student wins a contest, he told about how he won an even bigger contest!  When another student broke his arm, he told about how he broke both arms AND both legs!  Children and adults will get a real kick out of Brad's tall tales as he learns the importance of being a 'pull-upper' and not a 'one-upper.'  

Well I can top that! Lesson (TPT: $1.25)

I'm the Best

Description from Amazon: "I win! I’m the best!" Dog boasts. He can run faster than Mole, dig better than Goose, swim faster than Donkey, and he’s much bigger than Ladybug. He wins! Unfortunately, Dog’s nonstop bragging is starting to make his friends feel kind of sad. But what if they mixed things up and looked at them differently? Could they teach Dog a lesson — and remind him of what it means to be a best friend?

I'm the Best Activity Sheets

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Good Bye Bully Machine, Hello Kindness!

My fifth graders just finished their bullying unit using the book Goodbye Bully Machine! 

Description from Amazon:  Kids learn what bullying is, why it hurts, and what they can do to end it with this fresh, compelling book.  The unique format of Good-Bye Bully Machine helps kids understands the definition and impact of bullying by comparing git to a mean machine-the bully machine.  Kids can see how bullying makes the machine grow more imposing, while kind behaviors dismantle it.  Through the machine, kids gain awareness of their roll in bullying, whether they are targets, bullies, bystanders--or all three.  The role of the bystander is especially important.  Good-Bye Bully Machine helps kids see the power of the bystander to becoming an ally, which means learning how to show empathy, engage in kind acts, and take a stand against bullying.  It's a perfect way to engage reluctant readers and hard to reach kids.    

 This book does a great job at explaining the different types of bullying as well as the feelings that the victims of bullying feel.  We used the free reader's guide and worked on this unit for 8 weeks.  You can download the reader's guide here.   You can purchase the book here.  Here is the breakdown of our lessons:

Lesson 1:  Read Goodbye Bully Machine!

Use the discussion questions on pages 4-9 in the Reader's Guide to lead a group discussion.  We discussed the questions as we went through the book verses saving all of the questions till the end.

Lesson 2:  Make Bully Machine Collages

You can find this activity in pages 12-14 of the Reader's Guide.  Here are some examples:

Lesson 3:  Our Classroom is A Place Where...

You can find this activity on pages 15-17 of the Reader's Guide.  Directions for leading this activity are on page 11.

Lesson 4: Class discussion on the perspectives of the bully, the victim and the bystander.  This group read the Weird Series last year as fourth graders so we referred back to the main characters in Weird, Dare, and Tough. I first did my Good Bye Bully Machine lesson two years ago and really wanted to build on it.  As I was looking for ideas I came across the school counseling by heart blog.  She also used the weird series as party of her Bully Machine unit so I am sharing a link to that as well.   You can find her blog HERE.

Lesson 5:  Class discussion on I messages.  "I-Message" worksheets (found in the Reader's Guide on pages 18-19)

Example Lesson

YouTube Video

You Tube Video

You Tube Video

Lesson 6:  Bully Book Review

I divided the class into small groups and assigned each group a book about bullying.  The students were given this worksheet from school counseling by heart's blog to complete.  These are the books that I assigned them:  Mookey the Monkey Gets Over Being Teased, Bully B.E.A.N.S., Tease Monster, Alley Oops, My Secret Bully, Just Kidding, Nobody.  

Lesson 7:  Bully Book Review Continued

I had students return to their groups from the week before and gave them time to finish their book review worksheet.  They also had time to create a poster about their book

Lesson 8:  Students Presented their Bully Book Review Book Reports

Bulletin Board/Hallway Display:  We used the "Our Classroom is a Place Where..." lesson from the activity guide to create our bulletin board.  We cut out the different sayings on pages 15-17 and pasted them to the display.  

You can purchase Goodbye Bully Machine! HERE.

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A Bad Case of Stripes

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon, is a story about a girl who is embarrassed to let her friends know that she likes lima beans.  She doesn't want to stand out as being different.  This is a great story about self-acceptance and uniqueness.  The story teaches several lessons:  it is okay to be different; you should be proud of yourself; stay true to who you are; don't worry about what other people may think.  There are hundreds of blog posts, lesson plans and ideas out there for this book.  I am proving "connections" to the ones that are most relevant to school counseling.  You can purchase this book HERE.

Reader's Guide and Activities

How I use this book:  I take a photo of each child and upload it to ipiccy.com.  I then use the "pencil sketch effect" to turn each picture into a coloring page.  I have students give themselves a "bad case of the stripes".  They can also do polka dots or any other design.  They then complete an "i'm unique" activity found on TPT.  Here is a picture of my daughter with a bad case of stripes using ipiccy.com.  These picture would also make a great bulletin board display.

I use these discussion questions:
Why wouldn't Camilla eat lima beans?
How can we tell that Camilla was worried about fitting in?
Why was Camilla relieved that she didn't have to go to school?
How does Camilla feel when the students laugh at her?
Would you consider this bullying?  Why or Why not?
Why did the old lady give Camilla lima beans?
Did Camilla continue to care what the other kids thought of her?  Why or Why not?
Have you ever been afraid that people will laugh at you?
Are there things that you like that your friends don't like?
What is more embarrassing, having stripes or admitting that you like lima beans?
What makes you unique?

A discussion on feelings, a freebie and an adorable bulletin board can be found at http://theimaginationnook.blogspot.com

I also found some good ideas at  http://smittenwithfirst.blogspot.com.  This lesson covers feelings as well as problem solving:

http://pencilsglueandtyingshoes.blogspot.com shared a great door decoration:

Some teachers have even decorated PUMPKINS to look like Camilla!

(photo found on Pinterest...source unknown)

Others have dressed up as Camilla (this would make a great Hallloween costume)

http://stonebookworms.blogspot.com/

There are several free lessons on Teachers Pay Teachers:

You're Unique Freebie

A Bad Case of Stripes Class Book

Sequencing Activity

Listening center response-A bad case of the Stripes

David Shannon: A Bad Case of Stripes: Pill Bottle Template

Listening Practice: A Bad Case of Stripes

Bad Case of Stripes- FREEBIE!!!

Reader's Theatre Full Class Script: A Bad Case of Stripes

Bad Case of .... Your Own Version Cover Directions!

A Bad Case of Stripes problem/solution worksheet (kindergarten)

A Bad Case of the Stripes: Class Book FREEBIE!

A Bad Case of Stripes Free Bulletin Board Activity

"A Bad Case of Stripes"

Bad Case of the Stripes ($4.00)

Bullying Prevention Lesson link to "A Bad Case of Stripes" video PBIS Choices ($9.50)

File Game

Purchase A Bad Case of Stripes HERE.