Kindness: Post-It Poem

For our December virtue of Kindness, the 6th graders created a post-it poem. I saw the idea here and knew that I could use it in classroom guidance. We first discussed the definition of kindness and examples of kind acts. Then we came up with all of the words that we could think of that we associate with kindness. They could be synonyms or phrases that they felt related to kindness. I was planning on coming up with at least one word per student and then assigning a word to each student, but we were running short on time. Each student was given a post-it note and asked to pick one of the words that we came up with. They were able to decorate their post-it and write the word in any way that they wanted. They then stuck their post-its on a large piece of poster paper. I then took the poster and glued the post-it's so that they would stay.

Stewardship

We learned about Stewardship in November. The focus for grades K, 1, 2, 4, 6, and 7, the focus was on Time, Talent, and Treasure. Stewardship is a tough subject to teach since it isn't a word that we use often in our vocabulary like Respect, Responsibility and Honesty. But, once time is spent defining the word and giving examples, I have found that the students are very capable of understanding how they can share and give themselves in service to others. The focus for grades 3, 5, and 8 was on career education and exploration.

In Kindergarten, we read The Gift of Nothing by Patrick McDonnell. In the story, Mooch, the cat, tries to think of a gift to give his friend Earl, the dog. Earl has everything and Mooch isn't sure what to get his friend. In the end, Mooch decides to give Earl "nothing" but his friendship. After reading the book we talked about what "nothings" we had to give others: love, kindness, a smile, asking someone to play, helping a friend in need, etc. After our discussion, the students drew a picture of a "nothing" they plan to give.

In 4th grade, we read The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. This is one of my all-time favorites. I love Shel Silverstein poems, and aside from "Sick" and "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too", this is the best! We read the poem and talked about all of the gifts that the tree gave to the boy. In the end, the tree felt that she had nothing left to give, but she was still able to give the boy a place to rest. After reading the poem, we talked about all of the ways that we can give to others, even if we don't think that we have anything left to give. Each student wrote their ideas on a leaf and we decorated our own giving tree.

In 6th grade, we discussed the definition of Stewardship and examples of how we can share our time, talent, and treasure. We then listened to the song My Own Two Hands by Jack Johnson. The song talks about being able to change the world and make it a better place with our own two hands. We talked about our personal abilities to help other and each student came up with five ideas of how they can show stewardship. The traced their hand, cut it out, and wrote their ideas on each of their fingers.

November: Stewardship

In November, we focused on the virtue of Stewardship - sharing our time, talents, and treasure with others. This is a great virtue to talk about during Thanksgiving. We don't often focus on all of the things wonderful things in our lives and Thanksgiving gives us that reminder to be thankful for what we have. Showing stewardship allows us to share our gifts with others.

3rd Grade: We explored career clusters as a way of sharing our time, talent, and treasures with others. I have been gathering hats, props, vests and other career items for a few years. Michaels, Dollar Tree, and the Target Dollar Spot have great career items every once in a while. Anytime I see something, I pick it up. For 3rd grade, I hand out a career card to each student. These are color coded depending on the different career paths. The students read the career and a short descriptions and then break off into their color groups. Most of the career cards also have some sort of career "prop" to go with them (handcuffs for the police officer, stethoscope for the doctor, funny money for the banker, etc). In their groups, the students have to try and figure out why their careers are grouped together. At the end, each student is able to explain their career and then the groups tell the class why their careers go together. We then discuss what career clusters are. The students REALLY enjoy dressing up like their careers and give me great ideas for future "props". After the lesson, I hang some of the cards and props on a bulletin board.

5th and 8th Grades: We focused on career exploration as a way to show stewardship. We can share our talents and interests to help others through the career that we choose. Virginia Career View has a wonderful website that offers games and activities for students of all grades to begin the career exploration process. In grades 5 and 8, we use VA Career View take the career interest inventories of Kids Search (grades K-5) and Who R U? (grades 6-8). More information can be found on their website http://www.vaview.vt.edu/ There are tons of games and other activities including printable books and worksheets.

May Virtue: Fairness

I find Fairness a hard concept to teach. In the younger grades, Fairness focuses a lot on making sure everything is equal and everyone has the same amount. As children get older, however, the concept of Fairness takes a turn. Everything may not be equal but that doesn't mean that the situation is unfair.

Take privileges for an example. Children may feel that older siblings or students in older grades are offered more privileges. Children may not be offered the same privileges, and feel that the situation is unfair and unequal. But different families and different grades have different responsibilities and privileges. It's ok for Jane to feel disappointed that she does not get to stay up as late as her big brother Jack, but it doesn't mean it's an issue of fairness.

Another difficult fairness concept for students to understand are accommodations for students with learning disabilities. Physical disabilities are easy to spot and children don't have a hard time understanding why a classmate in a wheel chair gets to use the elevator when all of the other classmates take the stairs. But learning disabilities are not as visible and therefore, it can be a harder idea to understand, especially during testing time. "Why does Mary get extra time and Carl gets to write in his test booklet? That's not fair!". For this issue, I try to help the students understand that fairness in some cases has more to do with making sure that someone's needs are met rather than making everything exactly equal.

I had some great discussions with the 5th and 6th grade classes about this issue. It took a while for them to wrap their mind around it, but by the end they started to get it. I also used the example of having a food allergy and giving everyone in the class the same kind of snack (with nuts) but allowing a student with an allergy to have a different snack. They really seemed to understand that example.

February Virtue: Citizenship

During the month of February, we focused on the virtue of Citizenship. This topic expanded on many of the virtues we had already be learning such as respect, responsibility, and stewardship. I thought the red, white, and blue star theme would be perfect for the bulletin board.

The board includes several ways to show citizenship:

• Do your share to make your school, your community, and the world a better place.
• Take responsibility for what goes on around you.
• Be a good neighbor.
• Follow the rules of your family, your school, and your community.
• Treat people with respect and dignity.
• Participate in community service.
• Help take care of the environment.
  

In my middle school guidance lessons, we discussed the ideas of freedoms and responsibilities. The students were asked to list all of the different freedoms they were gaining now that they were older (cell phones, stay home alone, go out with friends, stay up later, etc). We then discussed how these new freedoms also came with new responsibilities (stay on top of texting and phone calls, be safe and responsible at home alone, get enough sleep, etc). We also talked about the future freedoms they would be gaining (driver's license, voting, buying cigarettes and alcohol) and what responsibilities would accompany those freedoms. The students were able to use real-life situations and this helped them to better understand the concept.