As a class we have been practicing our end of the year poem , No Difference by Shel Silverstein. To deepen our understanding of this thoughtful poem, we have drawn pictures, talked about bullying/teasing over our differences and how we are alike as well. We talked about Kindness and Compassion. (We call it the BIG C and have labelled incidents we encountered in our read alouds & daily experiences all year long).
This lesson was designed to help deepen their understanding to not judge each other by the way we look. I took two boxes one 'plain' and one 'pretty' ( their words) putting rocks in the plain one and M&Ms in the fancy one. ( Modified a similar idea from Traci @ Elementary Counselor Blog) I then asked them what gift they wanted to open and why. You can see the vote and their responses were to be expected. Most said the fancier, prettier box had something better inside. When I asked the two who picked the plain box why- one was able to express that the prettier box didn't always hold the best gifts. He then went on to say,
"The outside doesn't show what is really on the inside." The point of the poem and lesson! People are like M&Ms.. it doesn't matter what color they are on the outside it is what is in the inside that counts. Treat each other with kindness.
This lesson was designed to help deepen their understanding to not judge each other by the way we look. I took two boxes one 'plain' and one 'pretty' ( their words) putting rocks in the plain one and M&Ms in the fancy one. ( Modified a similar idea from Traci @ Elementary Counselor Blog) I then asked them what gift they wanted to open and why. You can see the vote and their responses were to be expected. Most said the fancier, prettier box had something better inside. When I asked the two who picked the plain box why- one was able to express that the prettier box didn't always hold the best gifts. He then went on to say,
"The outside doesn't show what is really on the inside." The point of the poem and lesson! People are like M&Ms.. it doesn't matter what color they are on the outside it is what is in the inside that counts. Treat each other with kindness.
We then ate an M&M SLOWLY. We sniffed it, let it begin to melt in our hands, place it on our tongues and let it melt slowly but no chewing. All were able to resist chewing. We briefly talked about the color being different as well but all having chocolate inside. They shared what they had noticed during this guided mindful eating task. We are ready for tomorrow's mindful eating lesson! |