The Social Teacher

Not exactly what you are thinking...not an "actual 24-piece puzzle"... As part of the Social Awareness   bundle from  Proud to Be Primary there are two pieces puzzles to put together. One pieces examples what happen, and the other piece is how to show empathy.   We completed it whole group.  These are great. The scenarios are all over the board. I like that because I feel like we talk about the same ones over and over again, so this gives us more things to discuss on how to treat people.  Some of them I never would have thought of.  I make double copies of the puzzle pieces with two different colors.  The scenarios in one color, the empathy cards in another. This will make it easier to sort when teaching it to the students.  I'll read the scenarios (A friend's cat is missing). Then we discuss it. We don't look for answer first, we discuss how we would react to it.  Then we look and read though the empathy cards to find the correct one (You could help look for her

Another way to help learn Empathy is reading the story: Hey Little Ant by: Phillip M Hoose . First graders are literal learners so make sure you tell them what "standing in someone shoes" mean.  Otherwise, they will think they are borrowing someone's shoes.  😜 The story is about a boy who almost steps on ant.  The boy empathizes with the ant in many ways to not step on it.  With this story I used the social awareness bundle from Proud to be Primary . There is an anchor chart that is label "Stand in Someone's Shoes". After reading the story we discuss how the ant and boy were showing empathy.  After the discussion students will go back to the tables to complete an activity.  They will color and cut out shoes.  They can design the shoes however they want.  When they are done designing, they will write 5 ways to show empathy.   My students really wanted to take these home to show their families.  

 My students love "putting on plays".  They love getting in front of people and showing people what we are learning.   Empathy Role Playing Ideas: 1. Students smile at recess...what happens? 2. Students are yelling at lunch...what happens?  3. Students are saying mean things at recess...what happens? 4. A student is crying in the classroom...what happens?  5. A student is laughing in the classroom during work n play?  6. Students are being mean in the classroom...what happens?  All of the role-playing ideas came from the mini book we just completed.  This is another way for them to understand how their actions effect other people.  

  Day 2:  Today when we are working on the mini book, I walked around to help students with their sentences. I made sure they made sense and I also wanted to know what their answers were.  I had the idea of these sentence starters also being good short time fillers when needed throughout the rest of the school year.  When there is time in between lessons we can talk about what happens when we smile at people or yell at people.  Having the conversations more often will keep reminding them how to treat other people.   You could have these conversations: *breakfast time in the morning (our students have breakfast the first 15 minutes of the day) *in between lessons  *when a lesson is done and you have time before going to lunch, recess, or  specials.  These conversations should only last 2 or 3 minutes.  These books will go into their book bins to read during read to self time. 

 I'm still using the Social Awareness Activities from Proud to be Primary .  There are a ton of activities in this bundle: whole group, small group, independent.  This activity we did today is independent. If you have the bundle it is page 38-45. It is a mini book called: My Actions and Others.   This month we've been learning about Empathy. The mini book is a great reminder that our actions have an effect on other people. The students will finish the sentences and then color a picture based on their sentence.   This should take about two days, depending on how long your social/emotional time is. Mine is only a half hour. With the students writing and coloring it takes long than a half hour, especially if they take their time on their drawings.  Some examples of what they students should write it:  When I smile, others will be happy.   When I yell, others are sad.   When I laugh, others will laugh too. 

 It is finally time for a blog about the best game I play in my classroom.  The student's love it, I love it.  The kiddos ask to play in ALL. THE. TIME! Seriously, all the time!  It is so fun. The students stand in a circle. I like them to be arm distance apart or farther.  They will be throwing a ball so the farther apart the better, but not too far because they are first graders; they can't catch. So, the students are standing in a circle.  This game is all about SELF CONTROL.  They have to be completely silent: no sounds, noise making, talking...NOTHING! Their body also has to be in control.  The need to be standing tall and still.   The ball gets thrown back and forth because all of the students. The object of the game is to the be the last person standing.  They sit down when they... *don't catch the ball *throw the ball overhand (I do this because over hand throws are too hard in a classroom) *make any kind of noise *body isn't in control  When the last student is

 Another activity from Proud to Be Primary 's resource: Social Awareness  is a whole group activity that I called When I... To help us more understanding empathy I am going to start a sentence and you need to help me finish it:   When I smile, you ___. When I yell, you __.  When I laugh, you ___. When I am mean, you ___. When I am friendly, you ___. When I cry, you ___.  Here is our anchor chart: 

 Visuals for a first grade can be really important. When they see it happen, they can learn so much faster and remember whatever they are learning longer. At least that is the hope, right? I found a great resource: Social Awareness Activities from Proud to Be Primary Today each student received a heart.  They cut out the heart. Then I told them to really pay attention.  Review what empathy means and that this heart is our heart inside us.  I am going to tell you a story and let see what happens to our heart. I have them find a spot on the carpet with their hearts. Model what they need to with the heart as you tell the story.  I tell them:  *You woke up this morning. You got ready for school, got into the car/bus and realized you forgot you backpack. (Wrinkle the heart) *You get to school, grab breakfast. Someone accidently pushes you and your . (Wrinkle the heart) *You get through your morning. You go out for morning recess and someone gets mad at you and hits you. (wrinkle the heart)

New month calls for a new theme: Empathy.  For November we discuss Thanksgiving, giving thanks, and understanding how special we are and grateful for all of the things we have.   This month we are taking a closer look at the word Empathy. After explaining the word (understanding someone's feelings) and giving examples (when someone is hurt you don't laugh, you help or when someone misses their mom during the school day, we feel sad for them too).  We read the book The Invisible Boy by: Trudy Ludwig . This a very sweet story about a little boy how feels invisible and how he doesn't feel that way at the end of the story. Now, this story may have been a little too deep for first graders, but we talked about how that little boy must felt.  I asked some high level thinking questions:  What would you do if you saw the boy? What would you say to the boy at recess?  How do you the boy change?  Extension: Retell the story using beginning, middle, and end worksheet.