Unbelievable Tradegy

Where do I even start to process what happened on Friday, December 14th in Connecticut?  As a parent of an elementary age student and an elementary school employee it doubly impacted me.  As school staff we love your kids SO much and I can't imagine not seeing their smiling faces each morning as I greet them at the door.  My heart aches for those parents, school staff and community.  We have a had a really great day with no mention of the tragedy at school.  However, I wanted to make sure that you had some resources if you do choose to talk to your child about what happened or if they ask you questions.  It is so hard to explain WHY someone would do this, but here are some helpful resources to help you talk to your child.

School Social Work Association
http://sswaa.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=500

Fayette County Helping Kids
http://www.fcps.net/media/653838/nasp.pdf

Talking with Kids about Tradegy
http://www.fcps.net/media/653842/samhsa.pdf

If you or child need anything please feel free to call me at 381-3402 or email me at dana.moses@fayette.kyschools.us

Second Steps Lessons

I have been introducing the Second Steps curriculum to all grades over the last week or so.  Those that have been at Garden Springs know this as (the cards) that I bring in and we do role plays with.  Second Steps is a research based Violence Prevention Curriculum that teaches kids about empathy, conflict resolution and anger management.  Right now we are focusing on empathy.

K:  In K, your kids are being introduced to Impulsive Puppy (my dog puppet, they love him!) and they will be meeting Slow Down Snail and Be Calm Bunny (also puppets).  We are talking about how important it is to be a good listener, as it shows others that you respect and care about them.  We will also be talking A LOT about feelings.  How to identify how someone is feeling by looking at them and how to show you care about them.  They will have an opportunity to role play feelings.
We will be reading the following book:

1st:  In 1st grade, we will be working on how to identify other people's feelings through facial expressions, body language and what is going on in a situation.  They will have the opportunity to role play different feelings and share experiences that have made them have the different feelings that we are discussing.  We will be reading the following book:

 

 

2nd:  In second grade we will also be working on identifying other people's feelings but will focus more on why its important to identify how others feel.  We will discuss how people have similiar and different feelings about various things.  Just because your best friend doesn't agree with everything you like or dislike doesn't mean that you cannot be friends.   We will also talk about how feelings change over time due to your experiences and maturity.  They will watch a Second Steps DVD about a lost boy which we will help talk about how his feelings changed throughout the video.

 

 

3rd:  In third grade, we will continue to talk about feelings but focus on perspective  and how others can see a particular situation very differently.  We will also talk about active listening and how important it is to show people you are engaged and listening because it shows respect and concern for others.  The kids do an active listening activity where they have various partners throughout the class and have a specific topic to discuss.  At the end we talk about what it felt like to be listened to or what it felt like if you had a bad experience.  We also practiced how to express concern for others through role plays.

 

4th:  In fourth grade, we will continue to talk about feelings but focus on preferences and conflicting feelings.  We do a really fun activity where the kids have to choose between 4 choices of things and they have to pick what they prefer the most.  For example:  If you could do any of the following activities which would you want to do the MOST; skydiving, go on a hot air balloon ride, scuba diving, or rock climbing.  They might not like any of the choices or they may like them all, but what do they PREFER the most of the choices. I love learning about their different personalities during this activity.  We also talk about specific feelings and how important it is to use clues such as facial expressions, body language and situational clues to figure out what might be going on with someone else.  The students get to do non-verbal and verbal role plays about feelings.  They LOVE role plays!

 

5th:  In fifth grade, we continue talking about feelings, perspective, and communicating concern.  The students did non-verbal role plays to show different feelings using their facial expressions and body language, the class then tried to guess the feeling.  We did role plays to practice how to show concern for others and we have been working on cause and effect with feelings.  How everything we do (positive or negative) affects others.  I really enjoyed listening to the classes come up with their own causes and effects for major issues.

 

We will be working on the first part of Second Steps, EMPATHY for about 2 months, then cover some other topics and then come back to it.



Internet Safety for Kids and Parent

I don't know about you, but I am already feeling like my child is starting to know more than me about technology.  With the growing presence of technology in our kids lives (computers, tablets, phones, DS, XBOX Live, etc) we as parents really need to make ourselves aware of all that our kids are exposed to and know how to protect them.

Here are some really informative websites to help you educate yourself on all things technology related with kids:

http://www.ikeepsafe.org/parents/

http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/parent-guide/parent-guide

http://www.netsmartz.org/Parents
*this site I use with the K-2 kids, they LOVE it!

http://www.cyber-safety.com/parents.html

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/parent-media-education/internet-safety

http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/net_safety.html

http://www.ncpc.org/topics/internet-safety

 

 

Bullying Unit

We are finishing up our schoolwide anti-bullying unit in guidance and I wanted to let you know some of the things we have been up to.  All students made a personalized construction paper hand to put on our large bulletin board with our Anti-Bullying Pledge on it. Its a symbol of we are all against bullying and we can stop it together.   Its awesome, see pic below.

K:  We focused on name-calling and teasing.  We talked about why kids get picked on, what we can do if someone is picking on us or someone else and how to be respectful to others. 

Solutions to Name-Calling/Teasing:

1.  Use your words (tell them how you feel)

2.  Ignore

3.  Speak up for a friend

4. Walk Away

5.  Tell a teacher/adult (if you have tried other things and its not working)

 

 

We read the book "The Brand New Kid" and "Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon" about kids who are different and the bullies who picked on them. We also watched the short video "Respecting Differences" that showed kids how to respect all the differences we all have.  We played a Respecting Differences game to show the differences within the class.  We also did name-calling/teasing role plays to teach kids how to be confident and stand up for themselves.  We ended our unit with a Pledge Against Bullying.

 

 



1:  We have discussed what is bullying, what makes someone bully and what to do if someone bullies you or someone else.  We read "The Recess Queen" and "Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun" to learn about differences and how to deal with a bully.  We also watched a short video called "Respecting Differences" that showed kids how to respect all the differences we all have.  We ended our unit with bullying role plays and a Pledge Against Bullying.  The students love these as they get to act out how to stick up for themselves and others. 

2nd:  We have discussed what is bullying, what makes someone bully and what to do if someone bullies you or someone else.  We read "King of the Playground" and "Say Something" to learn about the importance of sticking up for yourself and others.  We also watched two short video, one called "What We Learned About Bullying" this showed them what bullying looks like, sounds like and how to help yourself and others.  The other video we watched was a little one called "The Meanest Girl in Second Grade."  We ended our unit with role plays on how to deal with a bully and our Pledge Against Bullying.
 

 

3rd:  We have discussed what is bullying, what makes someone bully and what to do if someone bullies you or someone else.  We have read " Sorry!" which talks about how saying sorry doesn't excuse the behavior entirely.  In this story the boy was very insincere when he said sorry.  We also watched "McGruff's Bully Alert" and "McGruff Anti Bullying Video".  These videos showed kids what bullying looks like, sounds like and solutions for how to help yourself and others.   We ended our unit with role plays (always a big hit) that taught the kids how to be confident and deal with a bully.



 

4th:   We have discussed what is bullying, what makes someone bully and what to do if someone bullies you or someone else.  We also focused on cyberbullying.   We have watched "No More Teasing"  which shows them examples of bulling and harassment and how to handle  it.   The video "The Silent Treatment"  showed the kids an example of bullying where kids purposely isolate or ostrasize one another.  Its a powerful video for the kids, especially the girls.  We also read the book "Just Kidding", one of my favorites about just saying your kidding doesn't excuse the behavior and you really need to watch what you say and do to others.  We ended our unit with role plays (always a big hit) which taught the kids to be confident and stick up for themselves.  We then did our Anti-Bullying Pledge.



 

5th:  We started off this unit with watching a VERY powerful video called "Bullying:  Not Just Guy Thing".  In this video the students saw a group of girls being relentless mean to another girl.  There is a dream sequence where one of the bullies dreams that the victim has died in a car accident and realizes what she has done to hurt her with her words and actions.  This is a always a difficult movie to watch but sends a very important message to kids.

 

 

We discussed the video during our next class as well as the reasons why kids bully, consequences of being the victim and the power of their words and actions.  We then watched two great You Tube videos " Corunna Middle School LEAD" and "Cyberbullying".  You could hear a pin drop why the kids watched these.  I think it was very relevant to them and hit home.

 

 

In our last class we discussed what you can do to help yourself of another if they or you are being bullied or harrassed.  We did role plays to help students gain confidence in dealing with a bully and our Anti-Bullying Pledge.

Here is our awesome Anti-Bullying Pledge Board (we are not even done adding to you it yet!)



 



   

 

welcome

Welcome to my blog!

I am going to attempt to communicate more effectively with parents through my blog.  I will try to include any lessons, books and resources throughout the year.