We are launching a Steps to Respect program in our classroom this week. Steps to Respect is our school-wide bullying prevention program. The primary goal of the program is to help create a safe, respectful, caring learning environment that is bullying-free for all students and members of our school community.
As part of the program, our class is studying literature lessons that reinforce many of the concepts children will learn in the program. We are reading the book Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family by Lensey Namioka. This book was selected specifically because it speaks directly to children's concerns about making friends. It is about a girl's experience with moving to a new country and trying to make friends. Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family is an important part of the Steps to Respect program because it gives students an opportunity to discuss respect, friendship, and family. Students will also learn from the situations that are presented.
The lesson in this unit teach children to take responsibility for creating a caring school by:
* treating each other with respect;
* encouraging others to join in in group activities;
* using perspective taking and empathy to understand how someone else feels;
* and learning how to deal with bullying when it happens.
Please feel free to carry this discussion into your homes and apply to other community places.
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