Getting Along Together

Getting Along Together Lesson 1

Creating a Caring Community • Today we will talk about creating a caring classroom community. • What is a classroom? • What is a community?

Community • : an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (as species) in a common location • Or more simply: • A group of people with things about them in common and things about them that are different who are in the same location or place.

Crow BoyLook at the cover What do you think this book will be about? This book is about a Japanese boy named Chibi who is special. Can you tell in what way he is special just by looking at the cover? He know something about crows.

Let’s Read the book!

As the book, Crow Boy, suggests, people often have hidden talents. When you spend time getting to know someone, you can find out about his/her talents. We are all a collection of different people with different ideas, interests, and experiences. One of the goals for today is to begin to get to know each other. We want to celebrate the unique qualities we each have, and in celebrating each person, we also want to come together to form caring teams and a caring classroom community. Today we will be doing a lot of different activities to get to know each other better and to build the foundation for good teamwork.

We are a community of wise owls This week we want to get to know each other better and find out what some of the hidden talents are in our classroom.

Take turns telling your partner.. • Three things about yourself • 2 things that are true and • 1 thing that is not true. • See if your partner can guess which one you make up.

Inside –Outside Circle • Each team will get one poster with a large circle on it. • All of us have some things in common and some things, about us, that are different. • Some examples might be: • Favorite food • Favorite TV Show • Favorite sport • Favorite cartoon • Favorite movie • And many more that you can come up with • You will go around your team, being careful to listen, and share about your favorite things. • Example: Favorite candy bar…… • If there is something that you all agree on you will write it in the circle. • If you all are unique you will write it outside the circle • Any questions?

Getting Along Together Lesson 2

Team Standards • Active Listening • Help and encourage each other • Everyone participates • Explain your ideas and tell why • Complete tasks

Where have you seen these before? • Why do you think Active Listening is important? What do you think it means to…?????? Help and encourage each other? Make sure everyone participates? Explain your ideas and tell why? Complete tasks?

Roundtable • A place in the back of the room where you will find: • Class Council Box • Encouraging words papers • Think it through sheets. • Peace Path

Class Council Box • During the week, if people have problems that they cannot solve, or if they notice some good things that people are doing, they will put a note in the class council box. Once a week, we will open the box and talk about what is going well in the class and solve any problems that come up.

Teamwork • Everyone will get an Encouraging Words circle. • Talk with your team and decide on encouraging words for Chibi, from the story Crow Boy. • Write your encouraging words for him on your circles.

Share • The encouraging words you wrote to Chibi.

Getting Along Lesson 3 Day 1

Listening • Is listening the same as or different from hearing? • Let’s do a listening experiment: • Get some paper and a pencil ( Math journals) • We will walk around the school, without talking, and you can write down everything you hear.

Share • What did you hear? • Did you hear more or less when you were listening carefully? • Did you hear anything that you don’t usually hear?

Teamwork • When each of you was listening, think about what you were doing. How could you tell if someone was really listening? What would it look like?

Zero Noise Signal • Practice!! • Look at the speaker • Sit still • Hands on lap • Don’t talk

Guilty Stones • You have to really listen to these stories to solve the puzzle. When I give the signal show me Active Listening. • What do you think is the solution? • Tell your partner • Tell your table.

Getting Along Together Lesson 4 Day 2

Tell Your partner • All the things we need to do to be good listeners. • Today we are going to talk about some things that help us become better listeners.

Concentration • Pass out lists. • I have a bag with 15 different types of trash. • I am going to spread this trash out on the table and give you one minute to look at the trash and then remember as many items as you can. • No talking when I say go.

How did you do? • Did anyone get 15?

Concentration • Concentration is an important part of listening. I’m going to read a poem that will require all of you to concentrate very hard. • Can you guess what the poem is about? • Let’s open the book and see;

“Sarah, Cynthia, Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out” • Author: Shel Silverstein • Genre • As I read try to remember as many types of garbage that Sylvia would not take out as you can. • No pencils.

Teamwork • Make a team list of as many things, in the garbage, from this poem, as you can remember .

Asking Questions • Think: What have we learned so far that good listening requires? • Tell your partner? • Active Listening Signal

Today we’re going to look at some more ways we can listen better. • The Thought You Saider’s Cure • P. 10-22 • What can you predict about what will come next in the story? • Finish • How could the children in the story made sure that they understood what someone said?

Twenty Questions • I will give you 20 chances to ask a question about an object in this room. • We’ll see if you can guess what I am thinking about.

Partner Questions • You and your partner will play a guessing game. • I will give a picture to one of you and it’s very important not to show anyone. • The partner without the picture will ask questions about the picture and try to guess what it is. • Let’s see how you all do.

What kind of question is best? • What kind of questions helped you identify the objects the quickest? • What did you learn about questions?

Tell your partner • What have we learned so far about listening skill? Do you remember what skills we have learned in order to listen better?

Did you get.. • Listening posture • Concentration • Asking Questions

When we left off our story.. • The Burbanks were just about ready to call Mrs. Piggle Wiggle. If you were going to call her to find out if she can cure this problem, what questions could you ask? • Let’s read the rest of the story and see what she does.

In this story, • Magic taught these children to be better listeners. In real life, we have to learn skills to listen better. What else could these children have done to make sure they understood what was said+

Paraphrasing • This is when we repeat back the facts in our own words. • Paraphrasing is important because it allows the listener to check how accurately he or she has been listening. You are allowed to shorten what a person said and put it in your own words as long as the meaning remains the same.

2 kinds of paraphrasing • Paraphrasing the facts to make sure we understand what someone has said. • Paraphrasing how a person feels to make sure we understand how someone is feeling. • This helps us not to assume we know but to be sure. For example if I say” I’m freaked out by spiders!” and I’m smiling < How do you think I feel?

If you were to paraphrase to be clear about how I’m feeling you could say, “ So you’re really afraid of spiders?” Then I might say, “yes I am” or “ No, I was only joking!”

Here’s an example: • “This morning I was late getting to school. I overslept. The car wouldn’t start. There was a detour on the road. When finally I was almost at school, I remembered that I forgot my lunch, and I had to go all the way home. I slammed the car door and stomped up to the house.

Teamwork • Come up with a factual paraphrase and a feeling paraphrase for this situation. • Factual: looks at the fact • Feelings: looks at the person’s feelings.

Teamwork • “Mr Burbank filled the bathroom glass with warm water. He had decided that that would be the best way to was out the magic powder, and was just about to pour some in his ear when from behind the bathtub he heard the most awful screaming, screeching, whining noise. He straightened up, put down the glass and peered over by the bathtub. He didn’t see anything. He bent down over the basin again and picked up the glass. He was just about to pour the warm water in his ear when the horrible, screaming, squealing noise cam again, this time right by his head. Mr. Burbank was so scared he dropped the glass, spilled the water and banged his head on the faucet. • Come up with one factual and one feeling paraphrase.

Did paraphrasing help you? • What did it help you do ?

Let’s remember • What are the four components of good listening?

Did you get.. • Active Listening Posture • Concentration • Asking Questions • Paraphrasing

Getting Along Together