Lesson 7: Actions
Essential Question: What actions are appropriate for public places?
Lesson Overview
1. Brain Warmup
2. Read Aloud
3. Modeling Activity
4. Group Activity
6. Brain Cooldown
Purpose:
- By discussing appropriate actions and behaviors for school and public places, students can demonstrate appropriate actions when in public. Many actions can be discussed, but this lesson focuses on displaying kindness to students and others in public.
Vocabulary:
- kindness
- actions
- positive
- negative
Additional Book
Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud
- This story discusses the importance of being and feeling happy through the use of the invisible bucket. The author explains how to fill others' buckets by spreading kindness.
Click on book for video of read aloud
Additional Lesson
Activities
Does My Action Deserve a Smiley:
- Ask the students to model a specific action or behavior which could be seen in public (ex. opening a door, crying). A student will model the action and the other students will determine whether or not the action being demonstrated is a good or bad behavior.
Additional Resources
Bucket Filler Activities:
- See Teachers Pay Teachers for 'Bucket Filler' activities.
How Full is Your Bucket? For Adults:
Do Unto Otters by Laurie Keller
- This story focuses on positive actions and behaviors that should be demonstrated in public.
Brain Warmup: Daily Discussion
Purpose: Lesson 2 and 3 teach skills relating to daily conversations. This brain warmup allows students to practice the conversation skills learned in the previous lessons with a partner.
Materials: conversation map
Time: 5 minutes
Procedure:
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Partner students up with another student in the classroom
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The pairs of students will engage in a conversation
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Allow students to use their conversation map from Lesson 3
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The discussion should be between 3 and 5 minutes
Note: If students are struggling to find topics to discuss, a list of ideas can be written for the students to reference. Ideas for discussions can be sports, animals, weather, cars, school, family, and movies. Refer to the ‘Conversation Map’ Poster to review parts of a conversation.
Read Aloud: How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer
Before reading the story, activate students’ knowledge on kindness by asking the following questions.
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What does kindness mean?
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Have you ever felt happy when a friend, teacher, or adult has helped you with something?
This read aloud focuses on actions that can be demonstrated in public to spread awareness to others and to brighten their day by filling their bucket. The following questions can be asked to guide the discussion about kindness.
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How did students fill each other’s buckets?
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What actions did you see being demonstrated in the story?
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What does the buckets in the story represent?
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Do you have a bucket?
Modeling Activity: Fill Other Buckets
Purpose: This activity allows for students to practice promoting kindness by filling other students’ buckets in the classroom. Students will write a positive note on a rain drop and place it in the buckets.
Materials: small containers or pails, rain drop printouts
Time: 10 to 15 minutes
Procedure:
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Students will sit at their desk with a small container or small pail
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The small containers can be personalized with students’ names written on the front of the container
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Students will receive 3 raindrop printouts. On the printouts, students will write something kind about another student in the classroom.
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As a class brainstorm examples of kind or nice sayings that be can be written on the raindrop printouts.
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When students have completed writing the kind word or phrase on the raindrop, students will place the raindrop in the student’s bucket who the raindrop is meant for.
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Students are not limited to writing 3 raindrops, students can write more raindrops if desired or the minimum number of raindrops can be raised based on the teacher’s preference.
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When all students have completed writing and delivering the raindrops, students will return to their desk and read their raindrops other students had put in his or her small container.
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After activity, discuss “how did you feel when writing the raindrops?” and “how did you feel when you received raindrops?” Discuss the importance of being kind to one another to fill each other’s bucket and to lift each other up with positivity.
Group Activity: Does That Action Deserve a Smiley?
Purpose: Students will practice determining whether an action is appropriate for public places by judging pictures or short stories of students demonstrating a variety of actions. When students are judging the actions, refer to the ‘Good or Bad Behavior’ Poster. The poster asks three questions to help determine whether an action is good or bad; is the action safe? Is the action hurting someone? Does the action follow the school or classroom rules?
Materials: smiley faces, frowny faces, action pictures
Time: 10 to 15 minutes
Procedure:
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Students will sit on the carpet or open floor space.
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Use the ‘Good or Bad’ Poster to introduce how to identify good or bad behaviors or actions displayed in public.
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First: Is it safe? Discuss with the students that appropriate actions should be safe. Ask students “what does being safe look like in a classroom? What does being safe look like in a public place?” Brainstorm a list of ideas on what safety looks like.
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Second: Is it hurting someone? Discuss with students the importance of using kind hands and words in public. Create a ‘Looks and Sounds Like’ chart for what using kind hands and words look and sound like in a public place.
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Third: Does the action follow the school or classroom rules? Ask students, “what are the classroom and school rules?” Discuss the importance of following the rules in public. Share the importance of being safe, being responsible, and being respectful to others.
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After introducing and discussing how to identify good behaviors in public, use the ‘Action Pictures’ to practice identify good or bad actions. Students will each receive a smiley face and a frowny face. The faces will be printed on small pieces of paper or can be printed back to back, so students have to flip the paper to display the correct face.
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Show each action picture. After each picture, ask students to determine whether the action being displayed if a good or bad action using the faces. The smiley face represents a good action and a frowny face represents a bad action. After each student displays an answer using the faces, discuss why the action was good or bad. Refer to the ‘Good or Bad’ Poster to guide the discussion about each picture.
Brain Cooldown: Say Please and Thank you
Purpose: By seeing when to use manners and how to properly use manners, the students will begin to learn when the appropriate time is to use manners like please and thank you. Through this Berenstain Bears videos, students will see when manners are necessary.
Materials: Berenstain Bears Video
Time: 5 minutes
Procedure:
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Students will sit on the carpet, open floor space, or at their desk.
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Introduce the Berenstain Bears to the students, especially if students do not know who the Berenstain Bears are.
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Before showing the video, ask students “what are manners?” Discuss what manners are and ask for examples of manners commonly used.
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Begin the video.
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Pause the video at minute 2:03 and ask the students “what did Brother Bear forget to do?” or “what should Brother Bear have said to the bus driver?” Ask for volunteers to share ideas of what Brother Bear should have said.
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Pause the video at minute 3:00 and ask the students “what did Lizzy forget to tell Sister Bear?” Ask for volunteers to share ideas of Lizzy should have said. Ask students, “how did Sister Bear feel when Lizzy forgot to use her manners?” Ask for volunteers to share their ideas.
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Finish the video. After the video, ask the students “when should you use manners?” Allow students time to brainstorm ideas. Ask for volunteers to share ideas and record ideas on a technology board, poster paper, or piece of paper.
