Anti-Bullying Week

How do we stop bullying? 

I truly believe that Random Act of Kindness Day/Week should be written on the calendar more than one time a year.

What are we doing in our classrooms to create an environment embedded with mutual respect, kindness, love, acceptance, patience, loyalty and altruism?

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Here are a few activities to get you thinking as your embark on anti-bullying week.

These are activities I have done with my students in the last few years.....

The Power of Positive Words

First, I encouraged my students to think of negative words/names/actions/mean words that they hear in and around the school/schoolyard. I broke the students into small groups and had them write down these words. I brought the class back together and we reviewed the terms, calling attention to similarities, why these terms are used and what we can do. I teach at a Catholic School, so our discussions also involved befriending and helping those who are or feel marginalized, just as Jesus did.

 It's always easier to do the wrong thing, than the right thing.....
How can we do more to help those around us and create a happier place for everyone to live?

I then gave each student 1 coloured card. On this card, I asked the students to write down the word that they wanted to be remembered by in the future. Each student then walked up to the charts of negative/mean words (specifically one that they hated the most) and placed their word over-top of it.  

The Pink Shirt Perspective

 Each student chose to step into the shoes of "The Bully", "The Bullied", or "The Bystander". Using Runde's Room outline, the students wrote an "I Am" Poem through each perspective.

These shirts then became PSA announcements for the school on the PA System each morning for the entire week. 

For more ideas and activities, click HERE for our freebie!

My students LOVE the bookmark activity :)

Great Read Alouds for ANY GRADE 

(yes, even the big kids like being read to).

Meet Brian, the invisible boy. Nobody ever seems to notice him or think to include him in their group, game, or birthday party . . . until, that is, a new kid comes to class.

Chloe and her friends won't play with the new girl, Maya. Every time Maya tries to join Chloe and her friends, they reject her. Eventually Maya stops coming to school. 

Clover's mom says it isn't safe to cross the fence that segregates their African-American side of town from the white side where Anna lives. But the two girls strike up a friendship, and get around the grown-ups' rules by sitting on top of the fence together.

A little girl longs to see beyond the scary sights on the sidewalk and the angry scribbling in the halls of her building. When her teacher writes the word beautiful on the blackboard, the girl decides to look for something beautiful in her neighborhood.

Blue is a quiet color. Red’s a hothead who likes to pick on Blue. Yellow, Orange, Green, and Purple don’t like what they see, but what can they do? When no one speaks up, things get out of hand — until One comes along and shows all the colors how to stand up, stand together, and count. Students learn about accepting each other's differences and how it sometimes just takes one voice to make everyone count.

A rare look at emotional bullying among boys from the best-selling author of My Secret Bully.D.J.'s friend Vince has a habit of teasing D.J. and then saying, Just kidding!" as if it will make everything okay. It doesn't, but D.J. is afraid that if he protests, his friends will think he can't take a joke. With the help of his father, brother, and an understanding teacher, D.J. progresses from feeling helpless to taking positive action, undermining the power of two seemingly harmless words. Trudy Ludwig takes another look at relational aggression, the use of relationships to manipulate and hurt others, this time from the boy's point of view.

Monica is a target of relational aggression, emotional bullying among friends who will use name-calling and manipulation to humiliate and exclude.  But with a little help from a supportive adult—her mother—Monica learns to cope and thrive by facing her fears and reclaiming power from her bully.

Here are a few more....

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~Kaitlin~