March

I’m Important

Self-esteem

Monday / Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday / Friday
1
4
Bullying / 5
Character ED. / 6
meetings / 7 / 8
Early Release
11 / 12
Character ED. / 13
meetings / 14 / 15
18 / 19
Character ED. / 20
meetings / 21 / 22
End of Quarter
25
Easter Activity / 26
Easter Activity / 27
Easter Activity
meetings / 28
Easter Activity / 29
No School

Bullying Activity
Kyle’s Story

The story below should be shared and then discussed.

Character Education Activities

Paper Plate Message
Back Scratch Encouragements
Take a Look in the Mirror
My Name is Me
The Uplifting Circle
Recipe for Self-Esteem
Ranking Traits

Kyle’s Story

MY FRIEND SAVED ME

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd."
I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.
As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes. My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, I saw a tear in his eye.
As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives. " He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!" There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.
As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books.
He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends. He said yes. We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.
Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, "Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday! " He just laughed and handed me half the books.
Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to Duke. I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship.
Kyle was valedictorian of our class. I teased him all the time about being a nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak.
Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him. Boy, sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days.
I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!" He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. "Thanks," he said.
As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began. "Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends...I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give them. I am going to tell you a story."
I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. "Thankfully, I was saved. My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."
I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize it's depth. Never underestimate the power of your actions.

Paper Plate Message

Materials

Paper plates and markers.

How to Play

Sit comfortably in a circle and relax in a room. Each person is given a paper plate and some markers. That person then writes their name on the paper plate.
After everyone has their name written, everyone passes their paper plate one person to the left. Each person writes a note (or one positive adjective) on that person's paper plate that they think describes the owner of the plate. Then then pass the plate to the left again and the process continues.
This continues until everyone receives their own paper plate back, filled with encouraging messages and words about the strengths their peers see in them.

Back Scratch Encouragements

Materials

None

How to Play

Players find a comfortable area and spread out on the floor, laying on their stomachs, face down, eyes closed. The facilitator walks around and taps 6 or 7 people who stand up.
The facilitator then reads a characteristic such as "good listener" or "leader". The people who are standing up then walk around the room and scratch the backs of all the people they think match that characteristic. The facilitator goes through around 10 or 12 characteristics.
The facilitator then has the scratchers lay back down with their eyes closed and the facilitator chooses 6 or 7 different people to stand up and it repeats until everyone has had a chance to stand.

Take a Look in the Mirror

·  To make students aware of themselves

·  To promote students' appreciation of their individuality, ethnicity, and cultural heritage

·  To foster the integration of language arts skills

·  Develop an awareness of self

·  Integrate language arts skills

·  Use knowledge and inference skills

·  Enhance writing skills

Each student will write a self-description without names on a sheet of paper. Emphasize that the students are to concentrate on their positive characteristics. The descriptions should include physical attributes such as color of eyes, hair, skin, height, and weight. Other non-physical attributes should also be included, for example, loves to play jokes on friends, always smiling, very helpful, never late for school, is unselfish, and plays fair.

The students' self-descriptions are to be folded and placed in a box or bag. Have a student, one at a time select a folded sheet from the box or bag and read the descriptions to the class. The class will then try to guess who the mystery person is. This process should be repeated until all slips of paper have been drawn.

As each person is correctly identified, discuss how other students were able to determine the correct identity. Again, keep the students focused on positive traits.

Next, pair the class off. If numbers are uneven, place students in threes. This time, have them write positive descriptions about their peers and take turns sharing with each other.

Ask students to describe how they felt as their friends or partners read all the nice things about them. Also ask them to compare statements written about themselves with those their teammates had written about them. Ask if the two were pretty much the same descriptions or if people saw them differently than they saw themselves.

Have a dialogue centered around how we perceive ourselves and how others sometimes see us differently. Have the students discuss which is more important to them, what others see or think about them or what they see and think about themselves. Ask them to provide a rationale for their answers.

·  How did students demonstrate the ability to perform a self-assessment?

·  Did students seem to write an accurate description of themselves? How was this exhibited?

·  In the activity of students describing each other, how did they display kindness, empathy, and caring feelings for classmates?

·  How did students exhibit improvement in writing and thinking skills?

My Name is Me

·  To promote the students' awareness and appreciation of who they are

·  To help students reflect on their self-worth

·  To enhance students' self-esteem

·  Enhancement of vocabulary skills

·  Development of thinking skills

·  Development of writing and reading skills

·  Encouragement to use synonyms and homonyms

·  Development of metacognitive skills

Students will use prior knowledge, metacognitive skills, vocabulary knowledge, and creative thinking to complete the following activity. It can be done individually, in pairs, or as cooperative teams.

Each student will print his or her name vertically down the left-hand side of a sheet of lined paper, writing each letter separately. The student will try to think of a self-descriptive word or phrase that matches each letter of their name.

Students are to write a descriptive paragraph or story about themselves, using the words or phrases they have selected and any others they can think of as they are writing their paragraphs. The students are to share their writing selections with the class.

Example

My name is Miguel. I am an intelligent young man with a magnificent mind. My friends like me because I am a very unselfish person, who is always willing and eager to help others. I am also an extremely eager and ambitious leader, who can follow as well as lead. I am brave and gutsy. I am not afraid to try new things and go to new and different places.

This activity is an excellent homework assignment for involving parents in their children's schoolwork.

·  How did students use their knowledge and metacognitive skills?

·  How did students demonstrate pride and self-esteem?

·  Did students exhibit an improvement in writing skills? How?

·  How did this activity help students increase their vocabulary skills?

The Uplifting Circle

If you're a coach or teacher, gather your students in a circle. You should join the circle and hold a soft ball, rolled up sock or bean bag in your hand. Tell the children that their going to play a game called, "Uplifting Circle." Let them know that you're going to start the game by calling out one child's name, passing the ball to that child and then saying something uplifting to that child. That child will then mimic the process by throwing the ball to another child in the circle. Remind every child that they must say something positive. The only other rule of the game is that you can't pass the ball to someone who has already had it. End the game once every child has received positive praise.

Recipe for Self-Esteem

Teachers and parents can help children learn more about self-esteem and confidence by asking them to compile a recipe for good self-esteem. Teachers could have a lesson plan in which they describe what self-esteem and confidence are and what influences these things. Then they could ask each student to write their own recipe for a good self-esteem. Instruct the students to list ingredients for a healthy self-esteem and a write paragraph on how they have to combine the ingredients. Ask questions such as "What ingredient comes first?" and "What ingredient do you need the most of in the recipe?"

Ranking Traits

I ask students to rip a piece of paper into ten strips. On each they write a word or phrase that describes themselves. I assure students that no one will see what they have written, so a student can be extremely honest. Then the student arranges the traits in order from what he most likes about himself to what he least likes. When done, I say, "Do you like what you see? Do you want to keep it? Now give up one trait. How does the lack of that affect you? Now give up another. Give up three. Now what kind of person are you?" After giving up six of the qualities, I have students regain the traits one by one. Frequently I see great tension as students decide which traits they will give up. I hear comments about how incomplete the student feels without those traits, and I see great relief, and a new understanding of the importance of those traits, as they are regained. After the session, I have students write in their journals what they kept and what they learned about themselves from the experience.