This month, we will be going into classrooms focusing on the topic of bullying and harassment.
Our school-wide learning target is: I can define the different types of bullying/harassment, and I can recognize what steps I should take when harassment is being directed towards me or when I witness it.
5th Grade: We will have a toothpaste activity in which Ms. I will ask for a volunteer. That volunteer will run a bead of toothpaste the length of a piece of masking tape. Then, Ms. I will ask the volunteer to put the toothpaste back into the tube, it can't be done. This is an example of how hurtful words cannot be taken back. Ms. I will then introduce Stop, Walk & Talk for when students feel they are being bullied. This idea will be explained further by using the posters created by the 7th graders.
6th Grade: We will watch the Burger King anti-bullying video. The students will then write down a time when they felt unsafe/bullied on an index card. Students will star if their card can be read aloud. We will discuss the difference between normal conflict and bullying/harassment. We will then define empathy and watch clips from movies and television and have the students identify the emotions they are seeing in the clips. The ability to have empathy can decrease incidents of bullying and harassment.
7th Grade: After identifying the types of bullying/harassment, the students will watch movie clips depicting bullying/harassment and identify the type depicted. After, we will discuss how the 5th grade students will be introduced to Stop, Walk & Talk. The students will then get into pairs or groups and create a poster describing Stop, Walk & Talk to be used when introducing it to the 5th grades. Making posters will reinforce, for the 7th graders, what they can do when they feel they are being bullied or harassed.
8th Grade: After identifying the types of bullying/harassment, the students will watch video clips discussing harassment and it's effects, both short-term and long-term. Jo will engage the students in a discussion about the negative effects of bullying and why students engage in bullying.
