Wrinkled heart

My little ones and I have been having a blast together! We are loving and learning like crazy. I always start the first few weeks with a TON of bonding activities to help students get to know each other and form loving relationships. The classroom climate is THE most important thing to focus on (in my opinion) to have a successful year together! Teaching my kiddos to have empathy and treat one another with kindness and respect is first thing! When I saw this perfect idea on Cara's wonderful…

Learning Objective: - Understand how different words feel differently when spoken. - Understand the effect of hurtful words as leaving a mark on the heart. - Understand how to show goodness by using words correctly. Quran Verse: Wa quloo lin naas husna speak kindly to people 2:83 1. Have the children feel a piece of sandpaper and gently rub it over their arms. Talk about how it feels rough and hurts. 2. Have the children feel some cotton wool and talk about how it feels soft and gentle. 3…

Learn how to do a simple but effective wrinkled heart activity to focus on the impacts of bullying.

First Grade WOW, Windows on Wonder

I think the image of a wrinkled heart is a powerful one to help students visualize the way our words affect others. In first grade this week we are learning about put-ups and put-downs. I read the story Bad Apple and discussed how Mac felt when the other apples were being mean to him. One of the things I like about this story is that we do not see the behavior of the other mean apples change in the book when Mac is different from them, but we do see Mac and Will supporting each other as…

October is National Bullying Prevention Month so I thought it would be a great time to talk about kindness. Recently I posted about creating a kindness wall in my home to promote kind acts. Today’s activity helps kids think about how your words and actions impact other people. I did this activity wi

It's that time of year! Back to school time (even though I know some of my bloggy friends have been back for a couple of weeks now.) While you may be in a district that wants you to hit the academics hard core from the first day of school and cut out "fluff", there's nothing fluffy about a cohesive classroom. And you can forget good things happening academically when nobody can get along. Do you hear me administrators? I think it's a wise idea to spend some time helping your students learn…

Howdy! Welcome back! Today we read one of my favorite beginning of the year books, Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. It has become a fav of...

Teaching Empathy How do you teach your students about empathy and kindness? One of the most effective tools we have as teachers is great literature. Through stories, students can imagine, empathize and understand how others feel. They can realize that feelings they have are shared by others. These are essential skills for little ones! Here’s […]

A great activity for talking to your kids about bullying and the effect mean words can have on a person. You might like to read the story Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. As you read the book, pass around the large paper heart. Each time Chrysanthemum was teased because of her name, scrunch up the […]