First Grade: Feelings

For our last lesson this rotation, we started our second unit on Empathy. Students had to guess the feeling that I was feeling by looking at my face and body for clues, and once they had guessed correctly, they shared a time when they had that feeling using Think, Turn, Tell with their partners. Students first shared a time they felt happy and then a time they felt mad.

Next, Puppy came to visit the class and show off his new trick: saying all four skills for learning. He shared the four skills for learning with the class, and then Snail showed up seeming very sad. Snail was jealous that Puppy had gotten to share the skills for learning and he hadn't, so we let him show us how to assertively ask to sit next to someone.

For the rest of the lesson we talked about two different pictures.The first picture showed Jharell looking surprised. I told the students that Jharell's dad had just brought home a brand new puppy, and Jharell was not expecting it. Then students guessed how Jharell was feeling. Once we had all agreed that he was surprised, students looked for clues on Jharell's face that showed how he was feeling: his mouth was open, his eyes were wide, his eyebrows were up, his cheeks were down. Next students practiced showing their partners their surprised faces while the other partner pointed out clues on the face that showed they were surprised.

We also looked at a picture of Rita, who opened her lunchbox to find that her juice had spilled all over her sandwich. Students used face and body clues to determine her feeling: disgusted. Students shared the facial and body clues they saw that proved this feeling: her mouth was puckered, wrinkled nose, eyebrows are down. Next, we talked about what it means to be disgusted,and students took turn showing their partners their disgusted face. We ended the lesson by having students come up and use their faces and bodies to show how they felt about a scenario while the rest of the class guessed their feelings.

Fifth Grade: Taking Others' Perspectives

To continue our unit on empathy, this week's lesson focused on looking at situations from other peoples' perspectives. We started our lesson with an activity where students had to draw an object from where they were sitting in the classroom; this was a silent activity. Once students had completed their drawings, we talked about how all of these drawings were or the same object, but they all looked different. Students offered several reasons why: the view was from different angles, students have different artistic abilities, and students were looking at the object from different points of view.

We talked about how students may have different feelings and perspectives about the same thing. We spent the rest of the lesson discussing a video of two students. In the video, we see two different perspectives: Lydia's perspective and Alexis' perspective. Both students want to get a drink from the water fountain. From Alexis' point of view, it looks like there isn't anyone in line. From Lydia's point of view, she believes that she is waiting in line. We looked at each student's perspective and talked about how they felt about the situation. We also talked about how each student may have felt or responded differently if they could see the other student's perspective. We ended our lesson talking about how taking others' perspectives can help us to have empathy for others and makes us better friends.

Third Grade: Identifying Others' Feelings

This week we started a new unit on Empathy, feeling or understanding how someone else is feeling. We started our lesson by reviewing the skills for learning we have focused on and discussing why these skills for learning are still important to continue using even though our unit is finished. We warmed up our brains by playing a round of the Feelings Factory, where students have to show similar or different feelings than what I am showing using my face and body, but they have to listen for the words "Foreman Says." The rules are very similar to Simon Says. We talked about which skills for learning helped us to be successful: focusing attention, listening, and using self-talk.

We spent the remainder of the lesson talking about four students' pictures: Jenni, Meg, Brian, and Kyle. We used facial and body clues to determine how each of these students were feeling, and we agreed that they were all experiencing different feelings. We also talked about the importance of looking at the situation, or what is going on, for additional clues about how someone may be feeling. We watched a video clip of the four students that gave information about the situation, and we were able to decide that Jenni felt sad, embarrassed, and angry because Kyle had run into her and caused her to spill her milk. We also decided that Kyle felt amused by the situation because he laughed at Jenni. We talked about how the students had different feelings about the same situation. Next, we made predictions about how the situation would end between Jenni and Kyle.

Students had several solutions:

1. Kyle would get a paper towel and say sorry
2. Kyle would continue to laugh
3. Kyle would walk away and do nothing

We concluded the lesson by sharing our predictions with our partners and completing a worksheet on different scenarios where each partner had to share how they would feel, and students marked whether they had similar or different feelings.

First Grade: Being Assertive

In this lesson, we learned about being assertive, our final skill for learning. Being assertive means asking for help in a calm, firm, respectful way, and looking at the person we are talking to. We started our lesson with a recap of our other skills for learning: focus attention, listen, and use self-talk.

Next, we learned how to use Think, Turn, Tell - an activity where students share their ideas with their partners. In Think, Turn, Tell, the first thing we do is think: I ask students a question, and when they have an answer, they give me a thumbs-up. Once students have their answer, I instruct them to turn and tell their partners. Once they are finished sharing, they show me another thumbs-up so I know we are ready to move on.

Puppy and Snail came to visit and talked about a problem Snail was having. He forgot his lunchbox on the bus, and he knew he couldn't go all day without eating. Puppy encouraged Snail to tell the teacher, but Snail was afraid that the teacher would think he wasn't listening. In the end, Puppy convinced Snail that the teacher is here to help, and Snail should tell her. We talked about the problem and how Snail didn't know how to fix it.

We spent the remainder of our lesson talking about a girl named Tiffany, who was stuck and couldn't finish her writing assignment. Students brainstormed what to do and shared with their partners using Think, Turn, Tell. Next, we shared our ideas as a group. Students continued to share until we came up with the following options.

1. Try again one more time
2. Ask a friend
3. Ask the teacher

We talked about the importance of problem-solving in this order. Because teachers are often busy helping other students, we should try again and see if we can figure it out, then ask a friend, and finally ask the teacher. Next, Snail showed us three ways to ask for help.

1. Passive: I'm stuck. I can't do this! (whiny)
2. Aggressive: Grrrr. Help me with this! (bossy, demanding)
3. Assertive: Excuse me, I'm stuck. Can you help me with this writing assignment? (respectful)

We spent the remainder of the lesson asking for help assertively with different scenarios. We talked about three important things we must do to ask for help assertively.

1. Say excuse me.
2. Say the problem.
3. Ask for help.

Fifth Grade: Predicting Feelings

For our lesson this week, we discussed predicting feelings and how it relates to empathy. We started our lesson by having half of the students in the class while the others received instructions from me: to laugh when I said "Go!" and predict how their partners would react. After the activity, we talked about what students had done that had predicted correctly, and many of them had reflected on how their partner responds in other situations or based on the partner's personality.

We watched a video about a student named Lucas, whose cousin Aaron moves in with him because his mother is sick. The video shows that Lucas and Aaron have different hobbies and interests, and Lucas isn't thrilled about having the job of entertaining his cousin. In the first video clip, Lucas invites Aaron to play basketball at recess with him and his friends, but Aaron doesn't like basketball; he enjoys reading.

We talked about how Aaron felt about his new responsibility and how we could tell. We also talked about what Lucas did to help Aaron fit in, and if it was an activity that Aaron was interested in, which it wasn't. We talked about the importance of considering how others feel about a certain activity when we are making plans for them. This is known as predicting feelings. We also discussed how predicting feelings would have changed Lucas' actions: he probably would have realized that Aaron doesn't like basketball, and would have asked him to do something else that Aaron likes.

We finished up the lesson by talking about what Lucas could do to help himself predict feelings other things Lucas could do to help Aaron feel included in school. We concluded the lesson by watching the final video clip. This time, Lucas gave Aaron the option of playing basketball, but also offered to show him where students read in the library. By predicting Aaron's feelings, Lucas was able to have empathy for his friend and come up with a solution that Aaron would like.

This week's prezi link:
http://prezi.com/gnkc50ehzqjz/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Third Grade: Planning to Learn

For our last lesson on skills for learning, we talked about how plans can help students be successful. We started our lesson by reviewing our skills for learning: focus attention, listen, use self-talk, and be assertive. Next, we moved into a Brain Builder called Sentence Switcheroo. In Sentence Switcheroo, students have to pay close attention to the words I say and use their bodies to show whether I said the sentence the same way or a different way. After Sentence Switcheroo, we talked about the different skills for learning that helped us to do well in the game.

For the rest of the lesson, we talked about a student named Cheng. Cheng had a problem: his teacher was asking him for his homework, and he forgot to take it home again! We talked about how Cheng felt about the situation: upset, embarrassed, frustrated, disappointed. We also used thumbs up to show if this had ever happened to us before. Because most of us have experienced this before, we are able to show empathy for Cheng!

We decided that Cheng needs a plan, or something that tells you the steps to get something done, to help him to take home his homework. We talked about the importance of a good plan and the three criteria we must look for:

1. The plan makes sense
2. It's Simple
3. You can do it

If any of these criteria are missing, it is not a good plan. Next, students brainstormed ideas for the first step of Cheng's plan with their partners. Cheng decides to put a post-it on his desk that says "REMEMBER HOMEWORK!!!" so he will remember to take it home. Next, students shared with their partners where they thought he should place the post-it as a reminder. Many students thought Cheng should put it on his desk, and that's where he decided to put it. Finally, he decides for his final step that he will put his homework in his backpack as soon as he sees the reminder. We went over the Good Plan Checklist to make sure it would work, and we agreed it was a good plan. We concluded the lesson by brainstorming areas where students could use plans to be more successful.

First Grade: Using Self-Talk

We started this week's lesson by doing a "mixed-up" round of My Turn, Your Turn. For this round, students still had to wait for their turn before repeating the body motions I instructed, but this time I added some "mixed-up" rules to make it harder. For instance, if I said "touch your elbows," in mixed-up rules that meant to touch your ears. I added more mixed-up rules for each class depending on their level of difficulty with the new rules.

Puppy came to visit the class and showed them how he uses self-talk to follow the Listening Rules. Because he has had trouble remembering all of the rules, he has been repeating the rules to himself. By repeating, Puppy is able to remember what to do to be a great listener!

We spent the rest of our lesson talking about a photo of two students: Will and Lamar. The students in the class were working on a writing assignment (much like our first graders do!), but the two students behind Will and Lamar were finished working. They were reading a book aloud, and they were whispering and giggling. Will was able to continue working on his assignment, but Lamar was distracted.

We talked about what it meant to be distracted. We decided that a distraction is something or someone that takes away our attention from what we should be doing. We talked about how the two students behind Will and Lamar were a distraction. We talked about how we could tell Lamar was distracted: he was turning around looking at the students, and he wasn't working on his assignment. We talked about what Lamar could do to help himself ignore the distraction. We decided he could use his attent-o-scope to focus, and tell himself to ignore the girls.

Lamar used self-talk to ignore the girls behind him and also used it to repeat his directions so he could stay focused. By using his attent-o-scope and self-talk, he was able to keep doing his work and get the assignment done. We concluded our lesson by using self-talk to practice repeating directions to themselves during a round of My Turn, Your Turn.

Fourth Grade: Understanding Complex Feelings

For our final lesson in the second rotation, we discussed complex feelings. I started the lesson by giving an example about my morning and the different feelings I had experienced. After I gave my example, students shared two feelings they had had about their morning. We talked about the importance of having empathy because it helps everyone to get along better.

We spent the remainder of our lesson talking about a video we watched. In the video, Gabriella had brought stuffed animals to school for her and Emma to play with after school. However, Emma did not want to play with stuffed animals; she wanted to practice dancing with Necie. We talked about how Gabriella felt in the situation (hurt, disappointed, confused). We also talked about how we could tell how she was feeling. We talked about why Gabriella may have felt confused by the situation.\

We also talked about how Emma felt. She was excited about getting to dance with Necie, but she may have also felt guilty or awkward about the situation with Gabriella. She was also probably worried about hurting Gabriella's feelings. We talked about how Emma's feelings were complicated, and how we could tell she had more than one feeling.

Next, students shared with their partners about a time they had experienced more than one feeling about a situation with a friend. Together, we brainstormed ways that Emma could handle her complex feelings. We also talked about possible solutions to solve her problem. We watched the ending to the video, where Emma invited Gabriella to dance with her and Necie. We talked about how empathy played a role in this situation, and how empathy helped Emma solve the problem without hurting anyones' feelings.

Second Grade: More Feelings

We started our lesson by reviewing places we can look for clues for feelings: faces, bodies, and the situation. We played another round of Feelings Factory where students had to use their faces and bodies to show that same or different feeling as what I was showing. Students had to listen for "Foreman Says" (similar to Simon says) before they acted in changing their feeling. We were focusing on similar and different feelings because our lesson discussed how people can have the same or different feelings about a situation.

Next, we did a recap on last week's video about Daniel, who was hiking with his family and got lost in the woods. We looked at pictures of mom, dad, and Daniel and determined how they were feeling. We were able to see that mom and dad were both worried (had the same feeling), but Daniel was scared (a different feeling). We watched the rest of the video, where Daniel's family found him and his feelings changed.

We spent the remainder of our lesson talking about how Daniel's feelings changed from scared to happy/relieved, and how sometimes our feelings changed. I shared an example of a time where my feelings changed, then students took turns telling their partners about a time their feelings changed. We concluded our lesson by having pairs of students come up and act out their feelings in a given situation. The class would determine how each student was feeling (based on clues from face, body, and the situation) and whether these students had the same or different feelings.

Kindergarten: Feelings

This week we started our second unit: Empathy. We began the lesson by reviewing the four skills for learning: focus attention, listen, use self-talk, and be assertive. We talked about the importance of continuing to use these skills all year, even after the unit is over.

We used our Brain Builder to begin our discussion about feelings. Students used Think, Turn, Tell to share with  their partners about a time they felt happy. We used the rest of our lesson to learn about places we can look for clues about how others are feeling: face and body. We looked at two different photos of students to practice looking for clues and determining how they might be feeling. We looked at mouths, eyes, cheeks and eyebrows to determine how each student was feeling. For happy, we noticed the student had happy eyes, cheeks that were pushed up, and a smile.  The sad student was looking down, was frowning, and had cheeks that were down. Her eyebrows were also down. Next, we practiced showing those same feelings to our partners and looking for clues that proved we were feeling that way.

We finished the lesson by having students come to the front and show how they would feel in a particular situation. The remaining students would look for clues and determine how they were feeling.