Creating a classroom culture of kindness and respect has always been important, but in today’s classroom it’s more important than ever. Kids need to feel included. Kids need to feel heard. Kids need to feel safe. With the rise of social-emotional learning or SEL in classrooms, here are some things you can do in your own classroom to build a classroom culture of kindness and acceptance.

1. Kindness Catcher
2. Literature
3. Activities
4. Morning Meetings

Kindness Catcher

I have a Kindness Catcher in my classroom. There are little sheets of paper that have a to: and from: and large blank space on them next to a bin that is labeled “Kindness Catcher”. Whens students catch someone being kind, they can fill out a sheet by writing who was kind, their own name, and what the kind action was. We share these when the bin fills up and students receive certificates from me for being put in the Kindness Catcher.

I use these free certificates by The Primary Brain found at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kindness-Certificate-Award-FREEBIE-3830191

 

Some other cute Kindness Certificates by Bitten by the Teaching Bug can be found at https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Random-Acts-of-Kindness-Certificates-Editable-3000011?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-e6ble6n4AIVDIlpCh24XwrvEAQYAiABEgIi4fD_BwE for $3.50.

Literature

There’s not much picture books don’t cover in terms of kindness, anti-bullying, and respect. My favorite books to teach this are Spaghetti on a Hot Dog bun and I Am Human:  A Book of Empathy.

I recently received and reviewed the book “The Sensitive Pirate”. It’s an amazing book about a mean pirate who wants to be his funny, nice self. Using illustrations, strong vocabulary, rhyming, and humor, the author Morgan W. Richie sends a message to all her readers that happiness happens when you are true to yourself!

You can purchase the book at https://www.amazon.com/Sensitive-Pirate-Morgan-W-Richie/dp/0692066950.

Activities

Activities that share the message of being yourself, anti-bullying, and being kind to each other can be found in most classrooms. If you are looking for some new ideas to share with your students, here are a few!

The Toothpaste Activity

The toothpaste activity that is found at http://www.mrsoknows.com/2013/07/did-i-just-leave-dollar-tree-with-that.html?m=1  teaches students about the importance of thinking before speaking. The toothpaste represents words and when students go to put it all back into the tube, they can’t. This represents how you can’t take back the hurtful things you say to someone. It was a hit with my 5th graders at the beginning of the year!

The Crumbled Paper Activity

I did this activity back in one of my college classes. We decorated our own plain piece of computer paper while we sat in a circle. We then passed it to the next person. Each person had our paper for about 30 seconds to a minute. They could draw on it, crumble it, stomp on it, but they couldn’t rip it. By the time it returned to us, it was a mess! We were then told to straighten it out, make the way it was when we started. We obviously couldn’t! It sent a message of how our actions can effect someone permanently. How you treat a person (in this case the paper) can’t always be undone, so be aware how your actions effect people and have empathy toward others!

A variation of this activity can be found at https://ripplekindness.org/crumpled-paper-bullying-exercise/.

Morning Meetings

Morning meetings can be a great time to communicate to students the importance of kindness and respect. They also build student ownership and a classroom culture of respect. We even were able to do the tooth paste activity together during a morning meeting. When they are done daily with routine, students can run them. We have expectations for ours… you sit criss-cross, you look at the speaker, and speak only when it’s your turn (in our room you have the magic ball). We have a chant we say every morning meeting to remember the expectations. Then each day has a different activity. Some days are questions (these could be about hygiene, social media, kindness, just for fun topics, etc), some days are sharing about our weekends, and some days are social stories. You decide what your class needs to work on and adapt the meetings to meet those needs.

Have other ideas for what students can do on snow days? Share them with me on Twitter @Ms.Marshall_DES, on my Facebook Page @teachstation, on Instagram @Teacher_Station, or in the comments below.

Kindest Regards,

Emily

These past two weeks in Michigan have been snowy and icy to say the least! With closings all last week and an ice day today, teachers have been taking advantage of using technology to reach their students at home to continue learning! Here are a few ways to reach your students and a some ideas to share to parents for those days off!

Communication

Use Class Dojo to communicate with parents when snow days are in affect and to share out ideas of activities for students to do on their days off. With older students, you can also use Schoology or Google Classroom to reach students when school is closed. Lastly, a classroom Facebook page or Twitter can be used to reach families to continue the learning when school is not in session. Just make sure what is okay to have in your districts as some ban Facebook or don’t have student emails for LMS systems or virtual classrooms like Google Classroom.

Ideas

A co-worker of mine @Dolezal_DES on twitter created the Snow/Cold Day Challenges above for her first grade students! Students shared their pictures with her and you can see them on her Twitter, so pay her a visit! You can also use apps such as Flipgrid with students to have students share their work outside of the school day like the Snow Day Challenges for 5th grade students.

Digital Divide

As always, remember, some students may not have access to the Internet and this leads to problems with the digital divide, so the activities are for fun and not mandatory. Hopefully students and parents will be motivated to do a few on students’ days off!

Have other ideas for what students can do on snow days? Share them with me on Twitter @Ms.Marshall_DES, on my Facebook Page @teachstation, on Instagram @Teacher_Station, or in the comments below.

Enjoy,

Emily