Empathy

Today I read the book, Thank you, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco.  The main idea of the story is about a little girl (Patricia Polacco) who struggles to learn how to read. In the end her teacher helps her become a reader. I use this book because there is a very powerful picture in the book of when other kids are making fun of her. I think it is a good visual and reminder to kids about the power of words and the effect they have on other people. We can either use our words to hurt each other or we can use them to support, encourage, comfort, etc. each other.   

I explained that we are like a family. Just like in a regular family, you can't choose who is in your classroom or "school family," but we can choose how we treat each other. We talked about doing our best to protect each other, stand up for each other, encourage each other, help each other, etc. 

Along with that we have talked about the phrase, "You can't say you can't play." I explained how sometimes what we can do at home is different than what we can do at school. At home it is ok to choose not to play with someone but at school/recess we want to find ways to include our classmates in our play. When someone asks to join the play that is already going on students need to do their best job to find a way to include that person in the play. However, if you are the person asking to join the play you need to find an appropriate role and play by the rules of the game. The goal is to foster inclusion, especially amongst our classmates!  

We will continue to work on building up and strengthening our classroom family!