Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

"Thank goodness for all of the things you are not.  

Thank goodness you're not something someone forgot."

~ Dr. Seuss

Well tis' the season!  I'm sure you've noticed the influx of Seuss related crafts and lessons that come out this time every year.  A lot of schools do some kind of Seuss related activity to celebrate the authors birthday and life of children's amazing literature.  Among other things I decided to try an emotional education lesson this week using one of my favorite Seuss books "Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are".  

One thing that surprised me was the difficulty of explaining the concept of "luck" to children.  Most children believed that it had something to do with money.  Winning money, finding money, having money.  And yes, in some cases that is true, but we also talked a lot about luck just generally being something good that happens to us.  Finding a toy we lost, having a family that loves us, winning a contest.  We also discussed what unlucky meant, which we decided was when something bad happens to us but we didn't do anything wrong.  Losing a toy or pet, tripping and falling down, knocking over a glass of milk at dinner.  These are difficult concepts for 4-year-olds, but we read the book over a few days and reinforced our ideas before each reading.  

I decided not to go into the idea of other people being more unlucky than us because it was a little advanced for kids who are still trying to understand any kind of luck at all.  I did, however, at the end go through and ask each child to name something that made them feel lucky.  Something that made them feel good inside.  Pretty much every child named their parents or family, so after each answer I would reinstate that they felt lucky to have a family that loved them; which hey, lets admit, is the best luck of all.  

Every once in awhile I'll do a lesson with my kids that reminds me how much learning we take for granted.  I don't remember learning what luck was, or how to define the feeling of something going wrong or right for me that I had very little to do with.  And sure, these kids would probably learn this on their own someday... but it never hurts the odds to have a head start!

Teach on!

What I Like About You

So Monster week is over, but the lessons remain.  At the beginning of the week I read a book to the children called Most Loved Monster by Lynn Downey.  In it a Mamma monster puts all four of her baby monsters to bed by telling them what makes each of them uniquely special.  Of course it's funny because what makes you special in monster world is not exactly the same as human world.  Afterwards I gathered my students around and one by one had each stand with me in front.  I asked the remaining students to say what they liked best about the student standing with me (not necessarily what made them special, because at such a young age a child may be singled out for a disability rather than a quality).  I wrote down each child's answers on a chart to hang in the class.

I'm sure many of you have heard of this lesson in different formats.  Who can hold back the sap tears when reading of the teacher who did this with her elementary students, giving each child their own page of notebook paper, and finding out twenty years later that most of her students not only have kept their pages but carry them everyday?  It's an easily expandable and adaptable lesson that may carry a bigger impact than you ever imagine.  Personally I was surprised and delighted to hear my students complimenting each other for the rest of the day, a few of them are still doing it weeks later!

The Most Loved Monster book is a great jumping off point, but incase monsters aren't really your thing I've heard that the book You're All My Favorites by Sam McBratney has a very similar theme using forest animals.  Whatever book you choose to use I truly believe this is a lesson that should be used as soon and as often as possible.

Teach On!

Bear Feels Scared

Hello again!  

This week the theme in our class was Teddy Bears.  I had already decided that I wanted to fit an emotional development lesson in so was intent to find the perfect jumping stone story during my weekly library visit.  Enter Karma Wilson and her Bear books.  Besides being beautifully illustrated (by Jane Chapman) each story offers a situation that most children find themselves in at some time or another.  Oh, and they rhyme, without sacrificing vocabulary or flow...which is a big deal to me.  For my lesson I chose Bear Feels Scared.   This time of year especially, being scared seems to be a regular occurrence in my classroom.  I think its important to discuss fears with children.  So often I think to instinct is to calm them and move on.  Even with the best intentions the message is normally that children shouldn't feel what they feel.  How often have you said the phrase to a scared child "oh honey it's ok, there's nothing to be afraid of."?  Of course we mean well, but maybe instead of just telling children they shouldn't be afraid, we could teach them coping skills to deal with their emotion.  I believe a HUGE part of teaching emotional development is teaching metacognition, or teaching children to think about their thoughts.  And finally we arrive at the lesson!  This lesson is mostly about getting children to think about not only what frightens them but also what makes them feel safe again.  Because of the age level (3-4) I decided to have pre-made answers they could choose from, but definitely  you could have older children come up with their own answers and maybe illustrate them.  Really there's all kinds of places you could go with this lesson, knowing me and my class I went with the most basic form.


Lesson: Bear Feels Scared
Age: Pre-k/Kindergarten
Subject: Emotional Development
Objective: Children will be able to identify their own fears and coping skills.
Procedure:  
1) Read the book Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson.  Ask children to make a scared face, make sure the children know the difference between being scared and being scary.  As you read, ask children why Bear is afraid, where is he, what is around him?  At the end ask why Bear feels safe again, again notice the environment in the pictures.
2) Ask children what makes them feel scared.  Allow each child to discuss their fears, try not to cut them off if they seem to talk for a long time. 
3) Tell the children you have brought some things with you that can make them feel better when they are scared.  Have pre-made pictures or representations ready.  May include: A hug, family, friends, teachers, a nightlight, a blanket, a toy....etc.
4)  Have the children take turns coming up to choose what they think would make them feel better when they are scared.  If they are able ask them why they chose that.  
5)  Discuss how some options might be different when they are at school or at home, at home they can use their family, at school they can use their teachers or friends.  
6)  If you haven't already established one, have children choose a special spot in the room where they can go to feel better when they are scared, sad, or angry.  
7) Wrap up by reminding children that it's ok to feel scared, that everyone does sometimes, but that they also know what makes them feel better and it's ok to ask for it if they need it.  

Materials:  
*Book Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson
*Pre-made cut outs of coping pictures


Variations:
*Older children can identify and draw their own fears and coping skills.  
*If children aren't able to come up with fears you may want to have similar "fear cards" available for them to choose from.  


I got a great response from this lesson.  Despite their age the children were able to come up with well articulated fears.  The children all seemed engaged enough that they didn't even repeat each others answers (which we all know can be the curse of any lesson).  For me the pre-made coping choices worked out best.  Each child was able to choose what they felt would make them feel better, and again none of them seemed to copy responses.  To test this at the end I asked them if they had any ideas of their own of things that might make them feel better when they are scared.  As I guessed they weren't able to come up with much on their own so I didn't feel bad about providing ready made answers for them.  I'm all for getting children to originate their own solutions to problems, but as teachers we need to make sure we're tailoring each lesson to the ability of our students.  


Next week is Monsters, and if you can guess which book I'll be discussing I'll give you a shiny gold star!  


Teach on!

Don't Let the Pigeon...!

Guess I better get this thing started then!  I have used this lesson a couple of times.  I would recommend it with Kindergarten and 1st grade, although I'm excited to try with pre-k to see what can be done.  It is based around the very popular and VERY funny Pigeon books by Mo Willems.  Really any one will do, but it's fun to start with the first which was Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus.  I really enjoy basing lessons around books for the obvious reason that it can encourage a love of reading and draws literacy into everything.  When I did this lesson last Spring in a Kindergarten class it exploded into an entire theme.  We read every Pigeon book there was in preparation for the lesson.  Soon the walls were papered in pictures like the one to the right.  Children who had never shown any interest in the writing center began spending their entire playtime there creating new stories and begging for them to be shared with the class.  I'll be honest, it was beyond what I could have hoped for.  The end result of this lesson can be a single Big Book that is kept in class for the children to read whenever they want.  Because of the popularity it took on in my class I decided to copy, laminate, and bind a small book for each child to take home with them.  A lesson similar to this can also be found on Mo Willems own website, as are a few more that are worth a look!


Don't Let The Pigeon!

Learning Objective:  The class as a whole will write their own book.  Academically children will be able to use dialogue in the writing process.  For emotional development students will identify bodily emotions and the use of excuses.

Connection:  Children are learning the different components of writing a story including twists and exciting endings.  Children are encouraged to add environmental print to their illustrations and will be better equipped to develop multifaceted stories after adding dialogue.

Teach/Model:   1)  Week leading up to the lesson read “Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus!” by Mo Willems. (Or any other Pigeon book available)  Discuss the use of only dialogue to tell a story. Ask the class who likes to use the word “no”.  Talk about if there are right and wrong times to use the word.  Which are which?  Talk about why it is ok to say “no” to the Pigeon, what could happen if he drove the bus? 2)  Day of lesson: Remind students of the Pigeon books they have been reading this week.  Ask if anyone had a particular favorite.  Reiterate why is was important to say "no" to the pigeon when he asked for something.   3)  Ask children what sorts of things they ask for but are told “no” (i.e.. stay up late, eat candy for dinner, watch TV all day).  Make a list on chart-pad. 4)  Have students vote on one that most kids agree on, Write “Don't Let the Pigeon _______” on the chart-pad. 5)  Ask kids to think of different excuses they say to their parents to try to allow them to do the things they aren't allowed.  Write each excuse on a different newsprint. 6)  Announce that the children will be writing their very own Pigeon book together using the title they all voted on.  Each child will get one page of the book to write and color.  Show students the different options of Pigeon they might be assigned (Pre-made pictures of pigeon with empty dialogue bubbles).  Ask them to consider the emotion the Pigeon is expressing when thinking of an excuse (Ie...Pigeon looks sad, what is something sad you might say to try to get what you want?). 7)  Provide children with a "brainstorm" page.  Have them write down the excuses they want the pigeon to say on their book page (think of 2-3).  Once they have decided on the best one they may write it in their dialogue bubble and color in their pigeon.   8)  When the children have finished their pages put them all together and read the classes Pigeon book.  Bind this book to keep in class and make copies for the children to keep at home.

Active Engagement: 1)  Children will work together to develop excuses and Title ideas.

Link to Independent Work: 1)  Children will each develop excuses for their own page that they will write and illustrate.

Quality Questions: 1) What is an excuse?  What kinds of excuses do we use? 2) What kinds of things is it ok to say "no" to?  Why do we say "no"? 3) What are things we are told "no" to? 4) How does our emotion change our excuse?

Share:  Have children read their book at home to their parents.

Materials:   1) Chart-pad & markers 2) Pre-made empty pigeon dialogue pages 3) Don't Let The Pigeon Drive the Bus book, and any others available 4) Binding materials

Sorry for the wonky formatting.  I promise I'll get better at it!

This lesson can be readjusted for any number of requirements.  I think if and when I get the chance to do this with pre-k I would do a single big book and teach it completely as a carpet lesson rather than have the children brain storm and work individually.  This lesson has a lot of components, but if the children can come away with only an understanding of different emotional vocal responses then I believe it's a job well done!  Check back for new lesson plans and as always don't feel shy to share your own!

Teach on!