Wrinkled Heart - This activity provides students with a powerful visual that demonstrates the lasting impact of hurtful words and actions on other peoples' hearts. A "Wrinkled Heart" happens when unkind, or inconsiderate language choices are made.
Students discuss the effects that hurtful behaviors can have on someone's heart, as the wrinkles never come out all the way. Students make band-aids showing ways they can be kind toward their peers and not cause wrinkles in other hearts.
"Bucket Fill-osophy" - We all have invisible buckets that we carry with us, and we all have the power to fill our buckets, along with other people's buckets, with kind words and caring actions.
Students take this concept to heart and eagerly lead their classmates in the Bucket Filler Chant.
Three Rules of Bucket Filling:
Be a bucket filler. Be kind.
Do your best not to dip. Don't be mean.
Use your lid. Protect your bucket and the buckets of others.
Student Strengths - The book Jabari Jumps by Gaia Cornwall celebrates bravery and determination while acknowledging the fear and uncertainty of trying new things.
After reading the story, students wrote down words of encouragement to say to themselves when facing big challenges and then made trophies to remind themselves of their strengths.
Class Pet
A class "pet" named Sheldon (Shelly for short), hung out in our class during the week, and each weekend a different student took him home. Sending students home with the class "pet" encouraged them to read, write, and get outside over the weekend.
At the end of the weekend, the student who took the class "pet" home wrote a page in the "travel journal" about what they did together over the weekend. These journal entries were then shared with the rest of the class on Mondays.