2nd & 5th Bullying Lesson

2nd grade

This week 2nd graders had the opportunity to participate in a classroom guidance lesson that promoted bullying awareness. Much like the 1st grade lesson, students were informed of what the words bully, bystander, and target/victim meant, then participated in a role-play with the counselor as the 'bully,' one student as the 'victim,' and several other students as the 'bystanders.' (It's never good to have a student play the bully or for a timid student to play the victim.) The role-play involved the 'bully' saying something along the lines of "Give me your lunch money!" and the rest of the students playing along. It was a nice visual for students to understand what all the terms meant and they enjoyed 'playing' their role. To reinforce student understanding of the terms, the WONDERFUL story "The Bully Blockers Club" was read to the students and they completed the 'Bully Blocker Bingo' activity from the book, "That's My Story Too!". A parent letter was sent home with students that was photocopied on the backside of the bingo sheet to educate parents on what bullying is and how to provide support for their children if they ever feel their child is a victim of bullying. At the end of the lesson students had the opportunity to sign the pledge against bullying a receive a "Take a stand, lend a hand against bullying" sticker.

5th grade

This week in classroom guidance, 5th grade students learned about bullying and spent a lot of time discussing what a bystander is. Students had the opportunity to read "Good-bye Bully Machine" and discuss how they are the ones in the school building that have the power to make the school bully-free. The bully machine is a large, cold, loud, and fearful machine that operates on students being mean, hurtful, and negative towards others. To make the machine break down and not work, students need to stand together and not let bullying happen. By taking a stand against bullying, it is less likely to occur because it isn't accepted and it teaches the bully the way others expect to be treated....with RESPECT! To reinforce the topics discussed in the book, question cards from the "Good-bye Bully Machine" card game were distributed to each group and they had the opportunity to 'think, pair, and share' what they would do in different scenarios. Students then completed the "Build a Bully Machine" activity from the FreeSpirit leaders guide with a copy of the bully word search on the back of their handout for later reference. Students also received a copy of the "Let's Talk About Bullying and Cyberbullying" activity book from Positive Promotions (purchased by the PTO) while signing the pledge against bullying.

To learn more about this amazing book that I'm so glad I introduced this year, please watch the video below!