Using Reader's Theater to Help Students Learn Kindness

Did you ever wonder how to teach children kindness? We can use a whole lot of words, but they really need to experience it for themselves, don't they?

 

•  *Reader's theater helps build reading fluency.

• *Reader's theater helps children develop social skills.

• *Reader's theater develops reading comprehension skills.

• *Reader's theater helps children develop empathy.

• *Reader's theater helps children understand new and different situations.

• *Reader's theater helps children experience things they might not experience otherwise.

Here's a resource that celebrates kindness through reader's theater! It has a fun little twist to the story: the children read about a conflict, then ask the audience to help them come up with a solution to end the play!

Starring Kindness Sample: Reader's Theater with a Twist: has a 4-page script that describes a conflict about a blue crayon between some children. There are 4 characters involved. After 4 pages of dialog, the children are to discuss how to solve the problem and create an ending that uses kindness! 

Trust me, the children love this!

You can get this resource for free by signing up for my helpful emails HERE!

 

Want more? This resource has 5 different scripts:
Starring Kindness: Reader's Theater with a Twist:

 

We can all use a little kindness in our lives, can't we? 

 

In case you're looking for more reader's theater, here's a life cycle-themed script: What Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?

 

How do you help your students learn kindness? 

Diversity Matters: Celebrating Our Differences

We are all different. We are all the same.

It's tough for a lot of people to understand this!  

Right now, there are a whole lot of angry people out there bullying each other... and it isn't just kids. 

But the kids are watching, and learning from what they see around them.

How can we help children learn to appreciate the differences in others? 

The most important thing we can do is be role models: show them to appreciate and celebrate the good in others. 

Talk to them. 

Let them see you talking to others... all kinds of people!

Read to them. Read books about different kinds of people!

Whether it's Black History Month (February) Women's History Month (March) Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (May) or National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 - October 15) or even National Disability Employment Awareness Month (October), there's plenty of books to share with children that show the importance of different kinds of people. Here are a few to help you with Black History Month: (These books are Amazon affiliate links, which means I get credit for sending you to Amazon, but it doesn't cost you a cent!)

• Black Icons - An Illustrated Children's Book: Celebrating 20 Leaders & Unsung Heroes of Black History
• Things Kids Should Know About Black History: Educational Children's Book for Black History Month

• The ABCs of Black History 

• Black Heroes: A Black History Book for Kids: 51 Inspiring People from Ancient Africa to Modern-Day U.S.A.

 

A couple of books for Women's History Month:

• A is for Awesome!: 23 Iconic Women Who Changed the World
• Women Who Dared: 52 Stories of Fearless Daredevils, Adventurers, and Rebels
• We Are Artists: Women Who Made Their Mark on the World

And here are a few books to celebrate the best in everyone!

• All Are Welcome
• This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World
• It's OK to be Different: A Children's Picture Book About Diversity and Kindness
• Listening with My Heart: A story of kindness and self-compassion
• All People are Beautiful
• All Different and Beautiful
• I am Enough

Here's a little activity that you can use with your students to get their minds thinking about what is fair. It's perfect for sharing about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Black History Month, Women's History Month, or any time you want the children to think about respecting others! Just or Unjust?

You can get this resource for free by signing up for our helpful emails HERE.

More than anything, please model kindness! Here's a great video that touches my heart, that says everything I want to say about modeling kindness. (Plus the children will enjoy singing along!)

Honestly, I firmly believe embracing and modeling diversity is just as important as reading and writing!

These topics are great for research, as you can see from Enjoy Teaching!

Some ideas about celebrating Black History Month from  Those Who Love Teaching.

 

 Here's a great way to combine Dr. King's life with Google maps from Two Boys and a Dad!

 

Here's another blog post I've written about Sharing Kindness: 

 

Share the "Thank You" Wave!

There are a lot of angry people in this world, have you noticed?

 

 I'm not so sure we can change all the anger in the world, but I truly believe, if we do our part, we can help people be kinder.

I suggest by starting with the Thank You wave.

You know that wave people give when a car stops to let a pedestrian pass?

Or when a car lets a person into a line of traffic?

A Thank You wave is called for! 

It's a simple gesture, yet it makes people feel good!

So, why don't people do it more often?

Here's my challenge for you: see how many opportunities you can find to do that Thank You wave! See if you can make someone smile, and hopefully, that will make you smile as well!

Now, I know what you're wondering, what does a blog for elementary teachers have to do with a Thank You wave? Well, the only way we're going to teach children about kindness is through example! Be a good example for kindness!

And by the way, when that car stops to let you cross the street? Besides doing the Thank You wave, hustle! They're waiting for you, show kindness back to them by not making them wait!

Seven Steps to a Happy Last Day of School - Part 7: Enjoy them

You may not be getting much sleep, trying to fit in all those end-of-the-year expectations, but hang in there, there's a light at the end of the tunnel!

For the past 6 days, I've been sharing ideas to have a Happy Last Day of School. 

You can read about Step One here:  Read Your Favorite Book. 

 

You can read about Step Two here: Leave Out a Few Favorite Games.

You can read about the third strategy here: Keep Out a Few Decks of Playing Cards.

You can read about Step Four here: Keep Out a Handful of Whiteboards, Markers, and Erasers.

Read Step Five here: Make Sure They Have Something to Read!

Read about Step Six here: Find One-On-One Time With Each Student.

Now, here is Step Seven!

That's really what it's all about, isn't it?

Push away all the thoughts of what still needs to be done such as packing, test scores, end-of-the-year meetings, end-of-the-year record keeping, and all the rest.  

Take the time to enjoy the kids. 

I'll admit, I've never had a "last day" where I didn't get choked up saying goodbye to the children. (And I've been teaching forever!) 

They are the ones that matter after all the craziness of everything else!

It's really all about the kids. 

Remember that. 

Enjoy them!

Enjoy this Reader's Theater kindness:

This resource is available for free by signing up for my helpful emails HERE.

 

Which is your favorite of the Seven Steps to a Happy Last Day of School?

 

Six Ways to Integrate Team Building into Your Curriculum

Of course, I have always wanted my students to be successful in their school experiences. But I've always wanted more than that. 

I've wanted my students to be successful in life!

I recently did a search for skills needed for success in life. Most of the skills mentioned in each article overlapped. These are the ones that came up most often:

There is so much we must teach in our classrooms these days. 

How could we possibly squeeze in these important skills as well?

It just so happens in my studies of brain research, I've been focused on numerous team-building activities, and I've got some ideas on how we can squeeze these activities into our curriculum. (After all, brain research tells us that FUN is an element that helps a brain remember things!)

Countdown is a game the kiddos love, and there are many ways to tie some curriculum into the game! You can find a "Dollar Deal" download of this game here: How to Play Countdown. In "Countdown," all you need is a sequence. In second grade, I often play the game with skip counting, since that's something they need to hear and practice over and over. Other ideas for a sequence could be: seasons, multiplication facts, states of matter, types of communities, types of rock formations, names of presidents, or countries in Europe. 

Speed Chatting is a Team Building activity that gives the children a chance to talk... a LOT! All you have to do to include an area of the curriculum is to give them a topic to discuss! It might be: books you've read, facts about weather, interesting words you know, a country in South America, or whatever you happen to be studying at the time! Plus, talking about what they're learning enhances the learning! You can see more about this activity here: Speed Chatting.

Paper Bag Dramatics is another fun Team Building activity. It involves creating skits with the props in a bag. This can easily be connected to the curriculum by putting things in each bag that are connected to an area of the curriculum. If you're studying the 5 senses, you can put things (or pictures, or word cards) that can be smelled or tasted. If you're studying plants, you can put some plant types (or pictures, or word cards) that show the parts of plants. Get it? You can find more about paper bag dramatics here: Paper Bag Dramatics.

Pass the Clap is a favorite for the kiddos! Now I'm having a hard time trying to think of a way to include curriculum ideas for this one, since it really doesn't include verbal communication. However, if you look at the list of important skills above, we've got #2 and #8 covered! If you can think of a way to include curriculum with this one, please leave it in the comments below. But in the meantime, squeeze this one in somewhere, since these are important skills. (It only takes a couple of minutes, and it's a great warm-up activity during Morning Meeting!) To read more about this game, see here: Pass the Clap.

High-Low is an activity I always play with students at the end of the day. However, it doesn't have to be at the end of the day. It could be at the end of a certain subject in school. The children could discuss the high and low of their math lesson, the book they're reading, a science experiment, a country they've been studying, and so on. As we know, talking about a lesson reinforces learning. Plus, they LOVE to talk about themselves! To learn more about this activity see here: High-Low.

Party Talk is super fun and a great culmination activity! I was introduced to this when I was taking my master's program in Creative Arts in Learning. In my Music Integration class, we were to do research on a composer. I chose to research Steven Sondheim, who composes a lot of music for the theatre. (Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, Follies, Company, etc.) Instead of having us get up and just talk about our composer, the instructor gave us "Hello My Name is" badges and we had a "cocktail party." We went around, with our (non-alcoholic) drinks, and introduced ourselves, and talked about our lives. It was so much fun! Many years later, I was teaching 5th grade Social Studies. The children were researching famous people in the Revolutionary War era. Of course, I couldn't have a "cocktail party" with 5th graders, but we could have a "Boston Tea Party!" In this case, the kids were drinking tea, not dumping tea into the harbor. Again, we made "Hello My Name is" badges, served tea and "crumpets" and we had ourselves a tea party! Many of the kids even dressed up in colonial style! I'm sure you can think of many other ways of having a "Party Talk."

Still looking for ideas to squeeze these important into your day? 

Be sure to check out this resource: 60 Team Building Games and Activities.

How Can We Help Them Learn Kindness?

There is a whole lot of hate in our world. 

It's very concerning when we work with little ones and we want them to be successful. 

Although I'm not going to delve into politics, I'm sure you're aware that political changes here in the USA are pretty uncomfortable for many right now, and people are angry. Yes, BOTH sides of the political system are angry, and it's not helping our children. 

How can we help them learn about kindness? 

Well, here are three ideas!

There are tons of great books with the theme of kindness! I've linked some of my favorites below.

                            

I have a special softness for Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch and The Invisible Boy. 

Be sure to read the books and let the children have plenty of conversations. 

Bring up the topic of kindness and let the children talk about how the characters showed kindness in the stories. 

We know as educators that children are more likely to do what they see than what they're told to do. That means we need to let them see us showing respect and kindness to them, and the people they see us interact with. Let them see you performing little acts of kindness for children as well as adults!

Let them see you writing fun little notes for them and their classmates.

Let them see you leave a treat for the teacher next door.

Let them see you bring flowers to the nurse for Nurse's Day.

Let them see you go out of your way to tidy up to make things easier for the custodians.

Bring the whole class to the Library to sing Happy Birthday on the librarian's birthday.

I'm sure you can think of more examples of showing kindness, and I'm sure your students can think of plenty more!

When problems occur in the classroom, which we know happen often, be sure to address the group with the question, "How can we solve this problem with kindness?"

To help you out, I've got a Reader's Theater freebie that does exactly that! It's a little play for 4 people with a problem children can relate to. Here's the twist: after a discussion on how to solve the problem with kindness, the performers get to make up the ending!

One last thought: my singing group sang this song years ago, and it helps me deal with many difficult situations. Although this isn't my singing group, the song is just as beautiful.

 

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