Friendship

The list of things we did this month went on and on.  We had so much fun learning about what make a good friend and how to make friends.  We branched out of our comfort zone as individuals and tried to make new friends.

We decorated paper sacks for Valentines Day.  Students were able to use crayons, stickers, markers and other crafty items.  I told them they could only use things someone else had, they couldn't use the materials I gave them.  They had to ask politely and kindly to people at their table to use things they wanted, thank them and return it when done.  I was amazed at the kindness and sharing going on.  They learned to not be greedy for what they wanted.  Everyone's bag looked amazing and beautiful.  I heard lots of students say things like "look at the cool sticker my friend Ava gave me." for example.  It became much more of a deeper friendship bonding time than I had realized it might be.  On Valentines Day, the students were so proud of their bags and the neat things they created with their friends.

I read to the students a pledge of kindness.  It goes like this: I pledge to myself on this day, to try to be kind in every way.  To every person, big and small, I will help them if they fall.  When I love myself and others too, it's the best that I can do!  The tune is to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  Credit for this goes to a Teachers Pay Teachers item I downloaded.  It stuck with the students and I heard them singing it during other parts of the day.  It was sure fun.

We watched the DVD story of Chrysanthemum.  The students really had empathy for her as she was teased and feelings hurt continuously.  This was a new story for everyone in the class.  I had made a giant paper heart ahead of time.  During the show, every time someone said something hurtful, I stopped the show and had a few kids wrinkle the paper heart.  Then without saying anything, started the show again and continued this throughout that part of the story.  The heart was a wrinkled mess.  It was very visual to the class how the hurtful words had impacted Chrysanthemum's heart.  They understood how their words can hurt their friends just the same.  I was also asked the question from a student why the teacher in the book didn't help Chrysanthemum with the girl bullies.  They told me that I would never had let that go.  I would have helped Chrysanthemum and had a consequence for the teasing girls.  That made me feel good.  Good to know the class knows they have support for situations for things like this.  Our conversation continued and the also know that Kerry is an important person in our lives that would support us and help us with a situation like this.

After this discussion, I had two students try and smooth out the heart.  When they were done, two others, and again.  The heart was still wrinkled.  Next, I had band-aids with pictures on them I put out on the table.  I asked the question, "Will these band-aids make the wrinkles go away?  Will all the hurtful words that she heard just go away?'  The class all answered yes, for sure.  So, one by one, the students opened the wrappers and placed a fancy band-aid on the wrinkled heart.  The heart remained wrinkled.  I heard several "oh wow, it's still really wrinkled" and other comments that were surprising to them.  Love a good object lesson that goes just as you hoped.  We finished putting all the band-aids on and I held up the heart.  I shared that in our own hearts, when we are wrinkled from hurtful words, there are things that can be done to help the hurt go away, but it might never be as smooth as it was before.  The moral is that we should be super careful what words we choose to say to our friends or other people.  Is it kind and friendly?  Would I want someone to say it to me?

The class made a friendship quilt together.  Each student made a square of the quilt.  Individually, each square looked sort of simple and plain.  Then, put together, it was a beautiful quilt.  The students really enjoyed coloring it.  It was a challenge for several as they were asked to color in all the white.  I have some impulsive students who scribble to finish their coloring projects.  Several students helped others finish theirs if they were having trouble with the coloring.  It was a great friendship activity.

I wanted the students to make sure they acknowledged Kerry, our mentor, with a valentine card.  They each made one, I scanned them and sent them off to her.  Hope they arrived and were readable.  The students really enjoyed making the cards and were creative in what they told her.  It was really sweet.

Another art project we did was three hearts inside of each other.  The students had to put 1/2" square pieces of paper over the drawn hearts.  It was super fun and took a lot of perseverance to stick with it.  When students were finished I gave them the choice to read a book or help a friend.  Every student that had that choice helped another student.  It was great to see students that weren't necessarily friends that play regularly, working together to complete this project.  They turned out really sweet.

They love I spy word finds.  We did this last month with the perseverance as well.  I gave them cookie jars with words hidden to find.  They had to figure out with a friend how to share the magnifying glass.  I saw some really good turn taking and sharing.  Each student at the table had a different page of words to find.  Many students worked together to find the words. really good friend skills.

In our lunch room, the tables were turned and reorganized.  The other kindergarten teacher and I decided to have the two classes sit together.  I asked my class that if they wanted to be a good friend, they would sit by someone in the other class and have a nice conversation with them.  If there wasn't room on the bench, they could ask politely to have a spot.  The class was so amazing with this!  The other class went to lunch first.  Many of the kids did just this.  I didn't see any of my students sitting next to someone in our class only.  They were intermixed beautifully with the others.  The other kindergarten teacher was amazed at their kindness to ask for a space and want to sit with her class.  Another reason I LOVE Classroom Champions and the impact it has on students.

We read so many books on friendship, too many to tell about each.  The Zero, One, and Two series by Kathryn Otoshi are amazing.  The class asked to read them several times.  Two is about leaving others out and being unkind.  I had a student that was doing this in class.  After reading the book, she just stopped.  No conversation needed with her.  Well, and a month of talking about being friends and kindness.  Gerald and Piggy are always a hit.  We read I love my new friend.  Piggy and Gerald learn that they can be friends and still have friends with others.

This was such a fun month with so many activities and stories, opportunities to be friends, make friends, and understand how to be a friend.  I think it was amazing to see how the students were able to work with each other to deepen their friendships and branch out to new friendships.