Showing posts with label social responsibility. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social responsibility. Show all posts
The 6 Core Competencies are at the heart of the redesigned BC curriculum.
They are designed to underpin and arch over all learning K - 12.
The Six Cedar Trees is a book built on the Core Competencies.
The Six Cedar Trees
by: Margot Landahl and Celestine Aleck
publisher: Strong Nations Publishing, 2017
summary: Eagle perches himself in a grove of cedar trees high above a school playground. He explores the characteristics of 6 different Pacific Northwest animals and connects them with strengths we grow in ourselves (the core competencies).
We read The Crayon Box that Talked when we talk about being peaceful, being kind, and appreciating that we all have unique talents and abilities. It is a wonderful story about the importance of diversity.
Many American schools read it as part of Martin Luther King Jr Day activities.
Whenever it is read, it is a fun book with a good lesson.
The Crayon Box That Talked
written by Shane DeRolf
illustrated by Michael Letzig
published by Random House Books for Young Readers (1997)
A simple to prepare and make: beautiful poppies for children to make for Remembrance Day.
In Canada we honour those who fought and died in service of their country every November 11.
This is a tough concept for many of my k-kids to understand. It's a balance between learning to honour and respect the sacrifices that others made and make in order that they are safe, and honouring and respecting the children's innocence. The innocence that people have died to protect.
Part of our learning about the sacrifices and sadness of war, is learning that many people were hurt and died. Many of the soldiers were buried in fields of poppies. In making and wearing poppies we remember them.
we all can dance Giraffes Can't Dance is one of my favourite books.
One I enjoy sharing with my kidlets every year. It has such an important message.
And it leads to great art.
Yes, I know that Easter has come and gone, but we were on Spring Break the week before Easter. So, it was now or never. I chose now.
One of my favourite egg books really has nothing to do with eggs, even though an egg is the main character. Eggbert is everyman.
Eggbert: The Slightly Cracked Egg
author: Tom Ross
illustrator: Rex Barron
publisher: Puffin, 1997
themes: trying to fit in; the joy of imperfection
fine reading for age 4 - 8
opening lines
There was once an egg named Eggbert. He loved to paint beautiful pictures.
Eggbert's paintings always cheered up the other eggs in the refrigerator.
But one day it was discovered that Eggbert was slightly cracked.
summary
Cast out of the refrigerator because of a small crack, Eggbert sets out into the world, using his talent for painting to try and blend in. Eventually, he realizes that cracks are everywhere and reminds us all that our flaws are perfectly natural.
why I love this book
Who wouldn't fall in love with an egg who wears a red beret and carries a palette and a brush. An egg who recreates himself time and time again in order to fit it. An egg who realizes that his "imperfection", his cracked shell, is just one of many lovely cracked "imperfections" in the world.
My kindergarten kidlets don't really care about Eggbertian philosophy. What they do care about are the vibrant, engaging illustrations, the humour and easy to read aloud text.
And my bet is, that some of the message that it is okay, even beautiful to be imperfect, will stick. Hopefully it will invade their psyches.
resources
Mrs Saylor uses Eggbert to teach synonyms. I like her kids' Eggbert creations with their cute berets.
Eggbert is a perfect retelling story. Laptime and Storytime made beautiful flannelboard set. I would be inclined to just make Eggbert and retell the story with the book.
I think that all my kidlets have felt "evicted from the refrigerator" at some point. We can chat about what Eggbert did after being rejected by his friends. He enjoyed doing what he was good at. And he still sent them postcards.
I love this "movie trailer" for Eggbert. Brilliant.
happy Friday from a slightly cracked egg,
Susanna Hill's Perfect Picture Book Friday is the perfect place to find fabulous picture books on any topic. She has them organized by theme and by title.
well, actually, giraffes can dance! It seems like a really long time ago (it's been a l-o-n-g week here), but Anti-bullying Day was only last week.
We made an awesome video. I am so proud of my kidlets; we are learning that kindness is contagious. Check it out here.
We all wore pink shirts that said respect the right to be different.
My very favouritest book (yup, I hang out with 5 year olds) about respecting differences is Giraffes Can't Dance. A very favouritest book qualifies to be aperfect picture book.
author - Giles Andreae
illustrator - Guy Parker-Rees
published by Orchard, 2001
juvenile fiction
themes - self acceptance, resecting differences
great for ages 4 - 7
opening lines Gerald was a tall giraffe whose neck was long and slim. But his knees were awfully crocked and his legs were rather thin. summary Gerald the giraffe longs to dance, but his legs are too skinny and his neck is too long. At the Jungle Dance, the warthogs waltz, the chimps cha-cha, and the lions tango. "Giraffes can't dance," they all jeer when it's Gerald's turn to prance. But with some sound advice from a wise cricket, Gerald starts swaying to his own sweet tune. (goodreads)
why I love this book The book first had me hooked at the cover. Bright, cheerful, engaging and promising to be a lot of fun. But, one is not supposed to judge a book by its cover.... The rhyming text has good rhythm and is perfect for a read aloud. Gerald is an endearing fellow, and I think that all readers and listeners can connect with his feeling of being all knees, feet and the object of everyone's mocking. My students were definitely empathizing with Gerald, and there were several "that's not caring" comments about the jungle animals' response to Gerald's dancing during the story. The pen and ink, and watercolour illustrations are warm and fun; Publishers Weekly wrote that they "exude a fun, party vibe".
Some reviews stated that the message was overly didactic and there are much better books available about individuality. I can't stand "preachy" books and I love Giraffes Can't Dance. My kindergarten kidlets enjoy it and choose to reread it. They "get" that Gerald is different from the other animals, and that we all need to "respect the right to be different". Wouldn't it be boring if were were all the same? resources Last year when we read this book, we indulged in a biggish art project. You can read all about it here. The end results were fabulous and had Gerald personality in spades.
This year our art time frame was a bit smaller.
But I still really really wanted to create a Gerald with the kidlets to carry on our conversation about listening to your heart, being true to yourself, and respecting other's rights to be different.
Instead of using 12x18" paper, we used letter size, 8 1/2x 11" paper. We painted the grass and the sky the same, but glued on a white paper moon and made glitter glue stars. This time we used handprints for the giraffe's body and legs. The don't have the dance moves that last year's giraffes had, but they still rank pretty high on the cute/fun scale.
The rhyming text, perfectly lends itself to song. My kidlets love this; check it out.
find the music of your heart, and dance like no one is watching
Six years ago, a male grade 9 student in Nova Scotia was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. A couple of boys chose to stand up for this young man, and bought and handed out 50 pink shirts for students to wear the next day.
Now, many schools are a sea of pink on February 27.
We all wear our pink t-shirts. (One little guy in my class even spray dyed his hair pink!)
I figure that kindness is contagious, and is good bullying prevention. So, we like to promote kindness. Read about our video project here.
This week was our premiere. Kindness is contagious.
Check it out. The song is Noah and the Whale's Give a Little Love. I think you'll like it.
Anti-bullying day is next week. So, it's time to "think pink".
I prefer to think pro-actively and support kindness, caring and acceptance rather than teach the symptoms of bullying.
Noah and the Whale's song Give a Little Love works perfectly for that.
We watched it. A few times.
Then we made our own video with our big buddies.
Their teacher roughed out the story line, a dad who is a professional videographer volunteered his expertise, and we were ready for filming.
The premiere showing is this Wednesday at the school's Anti-bullying Assembly. The video is under wraps until them.
The kids were awesome.
And they are pretty excited about being in a video.
I hope that they remember - have written into their lives - that kindness begets kindness.
To "give a little love".
ps Without the help of our students teachers (who basically took over the classes for the morning) we could not have filmed our video. Thanks ladies.
Sharing deep sadness with the children, families and educators of Newtown Connecticut.
Today honouring the birth-day of the International Day of the Child seems especially poignant.
On December 14, 1954 the UN General Assembly recommended that there should be an International Children's Day. Susanna Hill is dedicating this week's Perfect Picture Book Friday to children's rights.
In 1989 the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child.
Sharee Fitch, a lovely Canadian poet, was asked by UNICEF to write a book that would promote discussion about rights and responsibilities. She "funnified" the serious subject of the rights of children to an education, adequate food, shelter and health care, safety, fair treatment, protection from war, with her trademark rollicking verse.
written by Sheree Fitch
illustrated by Darcia Labrosse
published by Doubleday Canada, 1998
poetry
suitable for ages 8 -adult
themes children's rightss
opening lines If I were you
And you were me
For just a day
Or maybe two
Then maybe you
And maybe me
Would see the me
That you were too.
synopsis Sharee Fitch and Darcia Labrosse raise global awareness of the rights of children in this delightful collection of poems interpreting 15 of the 54 articles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. source: Quill and Quire
winner of the Silver Birch Award and Atlantic Hackmatack Award
I like this book because ...
This book is like a diving board: it looks like the regular thing (a cheery book of verse) until it is read to a group of kids and then some wonderful leaping begins. The goofiness of the poems and the lightness of the art will put young readers at ease and inspire discussion. source: Quill and Quire
The light hearted verse is well matched with the free-spirited illustrations, neither of which take away from the seriousness of the subject matter. The fun is there to be enjoyed, as well as the subject matter to be discussed. I find that the fun serves as a reminder of the innocence that is supposed to be part of every childhood.
resources ...
Unicef outlines the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child.
Thanksgiving is a natural time to focus in a bit on being thankful - having an attitude of gratitude.
That gratitude is something I like to feed, nurture and allow to flourish as part of our class culture.
We end our week with "thank yous". Everyone has a turn to say thank you for something.
A perfect book to start this tradition ...
The Thankful Book
written and illustrated by Todd Parr
published by Little, Brown and Co. (2012)
juvenile non-fiction
suitable for ages 2 - 8 and adult
themes thankfulness, gratitude
opening lines
Every day I try to think about the things that I am thankful for.
synopsis
The Thankful Book celebrates things that children can be thankful for
the everyday things -- friends, pets, spending time with a parent
more conceptual things -- music, colour
the ridiculous -- wearing underwear on your head
I like this book because ...
Todd Parr manages to make complex ideals kid friendly. He makes thankfulness a concept that can be understood by a young child, and at the same time expands our ideas about what to be thankful for. The only "thing" that is mentioned to be thankful for is underwear. My favourite it: I am thankful for the library because it is filled with endless adventures.
resources ... Back to how we close the school week. At the end of the day on Friday, after we have filled all the backpacks, tidied the scraps of paper into the recycle bin, and collected all the stray pieces of lego, we sit down on the carpet in a circle. Each person in turn plays the drum, rings the bell or turns the rains stick, and says what they are thankful for.
The kidlets are reminded to be respectful, to look at and listen to the person who has the drum/bell/rainstick. We have one rule - if the kidlets want to say they are thankful for their friends, we do not name people (don't want this to turn into a popularity contest). I have never had to tell the kidlets not to be thankful for a long list of toys (don't want thank yous to turn into a brag session either). They seem to get that we are expressing thanks for things that touch our hearts. It's a great way to end the week. I fall in love with my kidlets all over again.
The days and weeks between going door to door begging for candy at Halloween and making Christmas wishlists in December can become the days of the "gimmes".
This provides the perfect opportunity to practice generosity.
Generosity without expecting anything in return.
Generosity from the kidlets.
Kidlets who have everything that they need and at least some, if not a lot, of what they want.
They can give of themselves for children who do not have everything that they need.
They can fill Operation Christmas Child boxes.
The kidlets became socially conscious entrepreneurs. We went into full scale rice crispie square production. Families donated the ingredients and some fabulous moms and our student teacher helped with production. Every single batch of squares was made with kidlet help - and they did not even get to lick the bowl.
Pan after pan of rice crispie squares - and not one child asked if they could have one.
Then we went into marketing and sales. A group of students made a P.A. system announcement to the school. And the salesmen went into action.
Sales were good. Now it's time to go shopping.
I asked the kids what we should get: colouring books, crayons, markers, stickers, little cars, hair ties, fruity soaps, a small musical instrument, balloons, stuffies.
I am going to buy all the bits and pieces to go into the box. The kidlets will help pack it up, and then we will add a class picture.
Hopefully our box will look something like this.
Hopefully the child who receives it will look this happy.
We are learning about global citizenship, caring for others (bucket filling), wants and needs - all from the humble rice crispie square.
This week is all about peace. It's our take on honouring Remembrance Day (November 11).
One of the ways that we learn to be peaceful is by honouring how we are the same and celebrating our differences.
This week we read a couple great books that explore the different colours of our human "wrapping paper".
These are still sitting on the story chair - we ran out of time to read them. Next week.
To honour our sameness and our differences, our uniqueness and our similarities, my student teacher and the kidlets made rainbow children.
The kidlets painted cardboard circles with their choice of skin colour paint and then added faces and rainbow hair.
It ties in perfectly with our other peace anthem (see the first one here).
This is a campfire song (sung to May the Circle be Unbroken) that was apparently first sung by Lynn Baker in the 1971 movie "Billy Jack". The lyrics have been modified from the original to make it more kindergarten friendly.
Download a copy by clicking on either the black and white or colour version of the song.
