This is a multipurpose activity that can be used with grades 2 through 12. It incorporates Promoting Positive Behavior in the classroom, Teaching Tolerance in the classroom, Reading, Writing, Talking Across the Curriculum, and Getting to know you Activities.
Start by a discussion with the class that may utilize charts or graphs the class may have prepared about similarities and/or differences between the students in the room. The discussion could also focus on Journal entries that students may have shared with the class. Perhaps there have been some "unpleasant confrontations between certain students in the classroom that you may want to correct, or nip in the bud. Only your imagination can limit you on the ways you can use this activity. For one example, you may want to use this as a filler activity when a regular lesson runs shorter than what you planned for. You may want to make a week's worth of lesson plans out of this one.
The purpose of this activity is to get students thinking about some or all of the items described in our paragraph one.
To begin, you will need some sort of heavy paper, approximately 8 1/2 by 11" in size, along with some washable markers to write with. The students help each other tape the "cardboard to each others back. Masking Tape works well. Then the object is that every student must take turns writing something NICE on everyone's' back. The activity will be noisy, and there will be quite a lot of moving around the classroom, so I suggest some strict rules or guidelines be discussed before you begin.
After an allotted time, (you decide) collect all papers and each child has to read all of the wonderful comments made about them. Often times the students are pleasantly surprised about the things that were written about them.
After everyone has had the chance to read their papers to the class, you can display the entries on a bulletin board,
a three ring binder, or any other way you can think of to keep this as a reminder about how "special" they are. (If a student is too shy to read what was written about them a friend, volunteer, or the teacher could read it for them.)
The entries do not need to be identified by the authors, and picture entries are acceptable for multi-intelligences.
This activity can be followed up with an essay or Journal entry on how the student felt about the activity, the comments made, or what if anything surprised them.
|